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'He's devastated': Bath cry foul over the length of ban given to Beno Obano
Bath boss Stuart Hooper was left flummoxed that last Sunday’s red card for Beno Obano at Wasps was deemed a top-end offence, resulting in the England prop receiving a five-game ban that will rule out of a possible European Challenge Cup final appearance should his club defeat Montpellier in this Saturday’s semi-final.
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The pattern for red-carded dangerous tackles in the Gallagher Premiership has usually been a mid-range entry point where players are given a six-week ban that is then reduced to just three weeks after 50 per cent mitigation is applied.
However, because Wasps’ Ben Morris wound up with a broken nose, the high tackle executed by Obano was deemed to be more serious offebnce and it left him facing a potential ten-week ban before the 50 per cent reduction was applied.
As it stands, Obano, who accepted the dangerous tackling charge at his RFU hearing, will only be available to Bath by June 8 at the latest (it will be a week earlier if Bath don’t qualify for the European final) following the 73rd-minute red card given at the Ricoh by referee Ian Tempest.
This outcome has left Bath coach Hooper perplexed. While on the one hand, he is fully supportive of the way rugby is now clamping down on bad tackles to the head, he was left dissatisfied over how the Obano collision was graded at the disciplinary hearing and left him to suffer a longer suspension than anticipated.
Disciplinary update | @BathRugby's Beno Obano has been given a five week suspension following his red card against Wasps.
Read the full judgement here: https://t.co/C1zAZyZzGE pic.twitter.com/h38Tp3ALlc
— England Rugby (@EnglandRugby) April 28, 2021
“I’m disappointed where it has ended up,” said Hooper on Wednesday afternoon when he fronted media ahead of this weekend’s cup semi-final. “I find it very confusing if I am honest. Of course, the welfare of the players is very important but the tackle that Beno went to make, as he said in his judgment, is that he got it too high.
“It was too high. The movement of the other player had an impact as well in that but he goes to wrap his arms, he does wrap his arms. He makes contact with the chest area and unfortunately they hit head-on-head. Sometimes we see those given in inverted commas as ‘rugby incidents’ and other times we don’t. It’s disappointing. I need to seek a bit of clarification as to what has happened.
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“Evidently there is a framework in place at the moment and it has been put in place to bring about a change in behaviour, but we just need to be very careful about the sanctions that are given and why they are given.
“I need clarification because what I have here is a young man who is in the prime of his career and he wants to be pushing on and playing in big games at the club. Of course, we want him to be playing as well. That has now been taken away and we just need to look and make sure of everything and we are clear on why it has happened.”
Asked would Bath appeal the five-game ban for Obano, Hooper continued: “I’m not at that stage yet. I have been out on the training field and the judgment has come through. My reaction is something that is immediate and I need to understand the details of how they got to that point and the process that gets us there because I don’t see it being in line with other sanctions that have been given.”
The bottom line is that Hooper has been left with a player who has seen his hopes of playing at the business end of the season in May go up in smoke. “He is devastated,” relayed Hooper. “He was devastated when he came off the field because of what it meant for the team and since then he has been nothing but contrite.
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“He completely understands that the tackle he made was too high. In the moment with the opposition player, they clashed heads but he has been nothing but apologetic and contrite and so he is gutted.
“I need to gather my thoughts. One thing we absolutely have got right is that the safety of the players is paramount. That should not be clouded in any way. But the process and the understanding, not only do I need to understand it but everybody we want to watch the game, enjoy the game and attract to the game needs to understand it as well.”
"His coaching role in Japan makes English rugby look RIDICULOUS…"
– Woodward has let rip in his latest newspaper columnhttps://t.co/8SYakMGnqk
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) April 28, 2021
Comments on RugbyPass
After their 5/0 start, I had the Crusaders to finish Top 4 only…they lost the plot in Perth but will reload and back themselves vs 4th placed Rebels…
3 Go to commentsBoth nations missed a great opportunity to book a game that would have had a lot of interest from around the world. I understand these games can’t be organised in 5 minutes but they should have found a way to make it happen. I don’t think Wales are ducking anyone but it’s a bad look haha.
3 Go to commentsIt will be fascinating to see the effect that Jo Yapp has. If they can compete with Canada and give BFs a run for their money that will be progress
1 Go to commentsFollowing his dream and putting in the work. Go well young fella!
3 Go to commentsPerhaps filling Twickenham is one of Mitchell’s KPIs. I doubt whether both September matches will be at Twickenham on consecutive weekends. I would take the BF one to a large provincial stadium so as not to give them the advantage and experience of playing at Twickenham before a large crowd prior to the RWC.
2 Go to commentsvery unfortunate for Kitshoff, but big opportunity potentially for Nché to prove he is genuinely the best loosehead in the world, rather than just a specialist finisher. Presuming that if Kitshoff is out, it will also give Steenekamp a chance to come into the 23? Or are others likely to be ahead of him?
1 Go to commentsA long held question in popular culture asks if art imitates life or does the latter influence the former? Over this 6 nations I can ask the same question of the media influencing the thoughts of its audience or vice versa. Nobody wants to see cricket scores in rugby, as a spectacle it is not sustainable. With so many articles about England’s procession and lack of competition it feeds the epicaricacy of many looking for an opportunity to pounce. England are not the first team to dominate nor does it happen only in rugby, think Federer, Nadal, Red Bull or Mercedes, Manchester Utd, Australia in tests and World Cups. Instead of celebrating the achievements why find reasons to falsify it pointing towards larger playing pool, professional for a longer period or mitigate with the lack of growth in other nations. Can we not enjoy it while it is here and know that it won’t last for ever, others coveting what England have will soon take the crown, ask the aforementioned?
6 Go to commentsShame he won’t turn out for the Netherlands now they’re improving. U20s are Euro champs and in the U20 Trophy this year. The senior sides gets better every year too.
3 Go to commentsWill rugbypass tv be showing these games?
1 Go to commentsWell where do you start, the fact that England have a professional domestic league and Ireland’s is fully amatuer, that they have fully seperated professional squads at Fifteens and Sevens (7’s thinly disguised as GB), and Ireland have fully pro Sevens squad who loan some players back to the Semi-Professional Fifteens squad (moved from amateur for only a year or so) for a few games at 6N & RWC’s. The Women’s games is a shambles, and is at risk of killing itself by pushing for professionalism when the market isn’t really there to support it outside one or two countnries..
6 Go to commentsWayne Smith's input didn't have as much impact on the last final as Davison's red card for Thompson. England were 14 points up and flying when that happened.
6 Go to commentsBilly's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
3 Go to commentsIt’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
3 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
31 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
2 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
3 Go to commentsSad that this was not confirmed. When administrators talk about expanding the game they evidently don’t include pathways to the top tier of rugby for teams outside of the old boys club. Rugby deserves better, and certainly Georgia does.
3 Go to commentsLions might take him on if they move on Van Rooyen but I doubt he will want to go back, might consider it a step backwards for himself. Sharks would take him on but if Plumtree goes on to win the challenge cup they will keep him on. Also sharks showing some promising signs recently. Stormers and Bulls are stable and Springboks are already filled up. Quality coach though, interesting to see where he ends up
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