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ESPN Staff
May 22, 2014
Players who hold rivals back in rugby games, or who tackle opponents illegally away from the ruck, should be carded, former leading referee Jonathan Kaplan says.
Kaplan was speaking after Jean Deysel was suspended for three weeks for stamping on Jordan Taufua, the Sharks flanker saying he did so only out of frustration because the Crusaders back-rower was holding his leg illegally.
Craig Dowd, writing exclusively for ESPN, suggested on Wednesday that Taufua should have been handed an off-field yellow card for his actions.
"No excuse for what Jean Deysel did when standing on Jordan Taufua's head, but it is really annoying when a player is hanging onto your leg when you're on defence five metres out from your goal-line," Dowd wrote.
"Deysel deserved a couple of weeks for his stomping, but I would also like to have seen an off-field yellow card for Taufua because what he was doing was a professional foul. There is nothing to stop the judiciary coming out with an opinion like that if there was a hearing. They should come down on the cause of the action and make a statement: if Taufua had held Deysel's leg, Deysel wouldn't have stomped on Taufua; everything has a knock-on effect."
But Kaplan wants even stronger action, calling infringements such as Taufua's "the biggest issue in southern hemisphere rugby at the moment".
"If the punishment does not fit the crime, then obviously teams will carry on doing it," Kaplan told supersport.com.
"If they are getting away with it and continuing to do it, it sends out a clear message that it is worthwhile to persist with this type of behaviour because referees are not dealing with this issue effectively."
Kaplan believes officials must issue a yellow card for what he described as a "cynical infringement which doesn't need a warning".
"It actually needs a card: it needs a yellow card, and an immediate yellow card," Kaplan said.
"If teams see that you are doing it and they are going to be carded, I can almost guarantee they will stop doing it. It is very important to note that it is a cynical infringement which falls under foul play which does not need a warning.
"Referees are too placating ... and they need to ratchet up their sanction a whole lot better than it is at the moment. Whether that requires better coaching or a better understanding of what is at play, that is a moot point. But, for sure the sanction needs to be upgraded. Either the refs need to be taken to task or they need to be given ammunition to sanction the behaviour in a different way so that it doesn't persist."
http://www.espnscrum.com/super-rugby...ry/226451.html
I never thought that I'd agree with Jonathan Kaplan but I totally agree with him re no warnings and straight to Yellow Card.
Super XV players are professionals. They know the rules. I think that there is an inconsistent application of how many warnings are tolerated by each referee.
To even this out, and to cut out the crap and flagrant breaches of the rules, immediate Yellow Cards are justified.
I also think that Deysel should have got more than three weeks as his stomping to a player's face was a conscious and calculated act.