Nigel Owens gives his verdict on Tom Curry red, Jesse Kriel play-on

Nigel Owens has shared his views on the two of the biggest talking points of Rugby World Cup opening weekend – the red card sanction for England back-rower Tom Curry and the play-on decision regarding Springboks centre Jesse Kriel.

Curry was yellow-carded by referee Mathieu Raynal just three minutes into his team’s 27-10 Pool D win over Argentina in Marseille last Saturday night, a decision that was upgraded to a red card by the foul play review officer.

It meant that Curry missed 77 minutes of the game and he then learned on Tuesday that he has been banned for three matches – reducible to two if he successfully completes tackle school – for his incident with Pumas’ Juan Cruz Mallia.

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In contrast, while the TMO Ben Whitehouse reviewed the Kriel collision with Scotland’s Jack Dempsey in Marseille the next day as the first-half play continued, he didn’t find any footage that he reckoned the referee Angus Gardner should stop the play and take a look at on the Stade Velodrome big screen.

The match citing officer would also have had access to this footage and he decided there was no need for a post-game citing, leaving Kriel free to continue with his tournament in France without any sanction.

Owens, the retired Test centurion referee, reviewed both the Curry and Kriel incidents on the latest edition of Whistle Watch, his weekly World Rugby review series, and he started with his assessment of the England red card.

“There was one big talking point that you all have been talking about so let’s have a look at the Tom Curry yellow card to the bunker and then upgraded to a red,” he began.

“Now do we have foul play? Yes, we do. Do we have direct contact to the head? Yes, we do. Do we have a high degree of danger? Yes, we do. So, we are already now on all that on a red card. Are you all with me? Yes, I believe that you are.

“So what happens is this: The Argentinian player jumps in the air. He then comes down and as he comes down pretty much simultaneously there is contact of Tom Curry into the Argentinian player and we have contact with the head.

“Now it all comes down to something as simple as this: If you felt that Tom Curry was reckless and he could have done something to avoid what had happened, then we don’t have any mitigation, we have a red card.”

It was less than 24 hours later back at Stade Velodrome when the second major talking point materialised in the early stages of South Africa’s 18-3 Pool B win over Scotland.

Owens said: “Another talking point from the weekend was the game between South Africa and Scotland, Jesse Kriel’s head contact in that game with a Scottish player.

“So the TMO has looked at this, so when the game is going ahead the TMO will be looking at everything in the background. Just remember the Hawkeye system he has, all the different angles, all the different views to look at his disposal to look at the game.

“The game can carry on, the TMO is looking at this and then the TMO will decide if he needs to bring something to the referee’s decision to then put it up on the screen and officially look at it or he feels I can’t see anything wrong here so we won’t show the referee because there is nothing to show and then we carry on with the game.

“It is important to note as well that it wasn’t cited as well because the citing commissioner also has all the angles so there is alignment between on and off the field. So TMOs are always working in the background, The TMO in his view does not have clear evidence to show that there was actually head contact.

“So again it comes down to simply your view. If you are looking at this and you feel there was head contact, we would then enter the head contact protocol and guidelines and then we would probably end up with a red card or if you are looking at this and you were going, ‘Well, I can’t really see if there is actually is head contact’ and you don’t have evidence to say there was, then we don’t have foul play and the game carries on.

“So in the TMO’s view here he feels there is no clear evidence of head-on-head contact, that is why we played on.”

Owens’ programme also took a look at the Will Jordan yellow card in New Zealand’s Pool A loss to France in Paris and assessed a disallowed Fiji try in their dramatic Pool C defeat to Wales in Bordeaux.

• Click here to watch the latest episode of Nigel Owens Whistle Watch