CrapRefs.com

Athletic England lock Courtney Lawes received a 2-match ban for sliding in with his knees into Argentine Hooker Mario Ledesma in their opening world cup match in Dunedin.

This seems fair to me.

Firstly, the tackle on Argentine centre Gonzalo Tiesi was not late in terms of the rules - Lawes was clearly committed and even in slow motion it was only just late. The judicial ruling did not appear to penalise Lawes in any way for this – which was right.

It was a great hit from a committed defender.

If an All Black manages a hit like that in this competition, I’ll be very happy.

Tiesi’s injury is a shame because we want all teams to be at full strength when they want/need to be – it’s a tough sport.

The knee shot did seem a little cheap although Lawes has got nothing on ex-All Black Richard Loe in that department. Cue the late knose-breaking forearm shot he put on Australia’s Paul Carozza in the second Bledisloe Cup test of 1992.

The argument for the defense was that Lawes was committed to a more targetted confrontation and pulled out, sliding instead. Unfortunately the collision that resulted made it look worse because Ledesma was at the time lying on the grass prone from the tackle that took him down.

Fair enough. No real intention, no malice, just a bit reckless (and potentially injurous) so 2 games off.

There would have been an issue had it been any longer. This was not one of Bryce Lawrence’s better matches with the whistle and England bore the brunt of the school teacher’s wrath for a period during the match. They only had to think of doing something illegal and Lawrence was onto them in a flash.

[Im my opinion, Lawrence has never rid his game of the tendencey to place more focus on one team's perceived indiscretions when they get his ire. I felt he ruined the second Lions v South Africa test with his ridiculous reading of the scrum, unfairly singling out Phil Vickery.

The approach to club matches in the Bay of Plenty back in the days when Lawrence was reffing at that level was 'Don't piss him off coz it will come back to us in spades!']

To his credit, Lawrence did not blow the Lawes tackle on Tiesi when others might have.

Lawes will miss Georgia and Romania – matches he may not have been chosen to play in anyway.

England will have their abrasive forward for the Scotland clash at Eden Park. Lawes will get another game under his belt going into the quarter finals where he will be needed.

Tags: Bryce Lawrence, Courtney Lawes
Posted in Rugby World Cup 2011 | No Comments »