France prop Uini Atonio cited for controversial tackle
France prop Uini Atonio has been cited for his high tackle on Ireland hooker Rob Herring during Saturday’s Guinness Six Nations match in Dublin.
Atonio was sin-binned in the first half of his country’s 32-19 defeat at the Aviva Stadium after his challenge forced Herring off for a head injury assessment from which he did not return.
Referee Wayne Barnes was criticised by a number of pundits for his failure to send off the 32-year-old La Rochelle player.
Atonio will attend a hearing via video conference before an independent judicial committee on Wednesday.
A Six Nations statement confirmed the New Zealand-born forward was cited for an act of foul play contrary to law 9.13.
The law states: “A player must not tackle an opponent early, late or dangerously.
“Dangerous tackling includes, but is not limited to, tackling or attempting to tackle an opponent above the line of the shoulders even if the tackle starts below the line of the shoulders.”
Latest Comments
Barnes is on the board of the RFU as referee representative. The Referees Union who wrote the letter calling for a Special General Meeting over the pay of execs/losses and more made mistakes. A symtom of a good letter is that you can stand behind every line in it as factual. While there are several good points in their letter they allowed a few ill thought out rants. This meant that the Board via Wayne Barnes can undermine the letter by focusing on the inaccuracies which weakens the real points. I'm not saying Barnes is acting untoward, he's not, he is concerned about refs showing hypocricy and he is also defending the RFU.
The Referees position is weakened simply by not being able to write a proper letter.
This is not untypical of sporting organisations and representatives at all levels.
Go to commentsYes, it will become much harder to target an opposing scrum now, which is why I think having a solid rather than dominant scrum will be enough for teams in the future. While the impact of the 30 second law is still to be fully felt, the free kick law has already had an impact. I can't imagine the Boks taking many quick taps from free kicks in the past. They would have taken a scrum to work a penalty or continue their 'slow poison' on the legs of the opposition. With that option off the table the scrum has already become less important as a weapon.
Go to comments