'Very efficient refereeing' saves Sean Maitland from a red card
Scotland international Sean Maitland exhaled a sigh of relief that he wasn’t red carded just eight minutes into his first appearance of the new Gallagher Premiership season with Saracens. His collision with Brett Connon was initially only deemed a penalty offence by referee Ian Tempest, but it was soon elevated by the referee to a red card incident before mitigation was then taken into account.
The game at the StoneX was in the early stages when Connon caught the ball on the halfway line near the touchline and he was clattered into by the fast-approaching Maitland, the seasoned Saracens winger whose left arm collided with the face of the Newcastle player.
Maitland also inadvertently smacked into the back of the leg of Adam Radwan, who was watching the Connon catch unfold, and the newly capped England winger wasn’t shy in letting his opponent know he wasn’t happy with the impact.
Commentating on BT Sport, who were showing the Premiership game live, pundit Brian O’Driscoll said: “He [Maitland] charged into that one, he didn’t leave himself any room for manoeuvre in case the player’s body height dropped.
“There is going to be a little bit of trouble on this one, it’s the left arm of Sean Maitland. That is contact straight to the head. Maitland is usually very good at judging the way he is going to get there for a collision, but for him to charge in it is badly mistimed.”
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Seeing Tempest initially only award a penalty, Lawrence Dallaglio chipped in: “The referee is being quite lenient. In fairness to Maitland, he has not swung the arm. It does make contact but what the referee has explained is there is a change in height at the end. He had given Maitland the benefit of the doubt.”
O’Driscoll replied: “I’d argue he [Maitland] hasn’t given himself any grace period to be able to react to something like that happening. It happened so quickly, he accelerated so hard. Yes, there is a duck but he is very, very fortunate to be getting away with that.”
At this point, Tempest had just seen a replay on the stadium screen and decided to review his initial decision. “I’m seeing this on the screen, I am going to come to you,” he said to his TMO, Claire Hodnett.
“What I am seeing there, Claire, is direct to the head, we need to talk about the level of danger. It is direct to the head, I see it as a high degree of danger. There is a clear, sudden dip at the last moment so the dip is my mitigation here. I’ll start at red, mitigation brings it down to a yellow card for No11 Saracens.”
O’Driscoll reacted: “It was going to be a stretch to go from penalty only to red card. Credit to the referee, he has identified it, he thought there was more in it, he took the decision into his own hands. I know he is working with his assistant referees and his TMO, but I thought that was very efficient refereeing and, on the balance of things, a fair outcome.”
During the ten-minute Maitland absence for Saracens, Newcastle struck for the game’s opening try through Mike Brown, the veteran ex-England full-back who was making his debut for the Falcons following his summer move from Harlequins. The visitors went on to lead 17-3 before Saracens hit back with a penalty try just minutes before the interval, a decision that also saw George McGuigan yellow carded.
"His first flight as a Falcon, and his first score!"
Mike Brown is up and running for @FalconsRugby ?
Instant impact on his debut!#GallagherPrem pic.twitter.com/hcgiMQwagL
— Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) October 9, 2021
Comments on RugbyPass
I think Matt Proctor became a 1 test AB in the same fixture. Cameron is quality and has been great this season, can’t believe’s he only 27. Realistically how would he not be selected for ABs squad this year. Only Dmac is ahead of him as a specialist 10. With Jordan out, it will come down to where and when Beauden Barrett slots back in, and where they want to play Ruben Love. Cameron seems an absolute lock in for the wider squad though. Added benefit of TJ-Cameron-Jordie combination at 9, 10, 11 too.
1 Go to commentsFarcical, to what end would someone want to pay to keep this thing going.
1 Go to commentsHavili, our best 12 by a mile, will be in the squad, if he stays fit. JB is the most overrated AB in the last 50 years.
61 Go to commentsWe had during the week twilight footy, twilight cricket, tw golf plus there was the athletics club. Then the weekend was rugby 15s plus the net ball, really busy club scene back then but so much has changed and rugby has suffered. And it was all about changing lifestyles.
6 Go to commentsIn the 70s and 80s my club ran 5 Senior sides plus a Vets. Now it is 2 sides with an occasional 3rd team. Players have difficulty getting to training now, not sure why and the commitment is not there. It seems to me more a problem of people applying themselves and not expecting to turn up and play whenever they want to.
6 Go to commentsROG’s contract is until 2027. The conversation about a successor to Galthie after RWC 2027 may be starting now. We can infer that Galthie’s reign stops then. He is throwing the Irish Coaching Job angle in because he is Irish. The next Irish coach MUST be Leo Cullen. As well as being the best coach available, coaching the vast majority of Irish Internationals week in week out, he has shown incredible skill at recruiting the best coaching staff for the job in hand. That was a failing in France. Cullen is a shrewd guy and if there is a need for foreign coaches underneath him he won’t hesitate. Rightly so. Ireland does need to start to bring Irish coaches through. Not just at the professional level but we need to train coaches to man new pathways for developing kids from schools/clubs up through the divisions.
8 Go to commentsNo Islam says it must rule where it stands Thus it is to be deleted from this planet Earth
18 Go to commentsThis team probably does not beat the ABs sadly Not sure if BPA will be available given his signing for Force but has to enter consideration. Very strong possibility of getting schooled by the AB props. Advantage AB. Rodda/Skelton would be a tasty locking combination - would love to see how they get on. Advantage Wallabies. Backrow a risk of getting out hustled and outmuscled by ABs. Will be interesting to see if the Blues feast on the Reds this weekend the way they did the Brumbies we are in big trouble at the breakdown. Great energy, running and defence but goalkicking/general kicking/passing quality in the halves bothers me enormously. SA may have won the World Cup for a lot of the tournament without a recognised goalkicker but Pollard in the final made a difference IMO. Injuries and retirements leave AB stocks a bit lighter but still stronger. 12 and 13 ABs shade it (Barret > Paisami, Ione = Ikitau, arguably) Interesting clash of styles on the wings - Corey Toole running around Caleb Clark and Caleb running over the top of Toole. Reece vs Koro probably the reverse. Pretty even IMO. 15s Kelleway = Love See advantage to ABs man for man, but we are not obviously getting slaughtered anywhere which makes a nice change. Think talent wise we are pretty even and if our cohesion and teamwork is better than the ABs then its just about doable.
11 Go to commentsCompletely agree. More friday night games would be a hit. RFU to make sure every club has a floodlit pitch. Club opens again Saturday to welcome touch / tag. Minis and youths on Sunday
6 Go to comments1.97m and 105Kg? Proportionately, probably skinnier than me at 1.82 and 82kilos. He won’t survive against the big guys at that weight.
55 Go to commentsThe value he brought to the crusaders as an assistant was equal to what he got out of being there. He reflected not only on the team culture but also the credit he attributed to the rugby community. Such experience shouldn’t be overlooked.
8 Go to commentsGood luck Aussie
11 Go to commentssmith at 9 / mounga 10 / laumape 12 / fainganuku 14
61 Go to commentsBar the injuries, it’s pretty much their top team …
2 Go to commentsDon’t disagree with much of this but it appears you forgot Rodda and Beale, who started at the Force on the weekend.
11 Go to commentsExcept for the injured Zach Gallagher this would be Saders best forward pack for the season. Blackadder needs to stay at 7, for all of Christies tackling he is not dominant and offers very little else. McNicholfullback is maybe a good option, Fihaki not really upto it, there was a reason Burke played there last year. Maybe Havilli to 2nd five McLeod to wing. Need a strong winger on 1 side to compliment Reece
1 Go to commentsTo me TJ is clearly the best 9 in the competition right now but he's also a proven player off the bench, there's few playmaking players who can come off the bench as calm and settled as he is, Beauden can, TJ can and I doubt any of the scrumhalves in contention can, if they want to experiment with new 9s I want him on the bench ready to step in if they crumble under the pressure. The Boks put their best front row on the bench, I'd like to see us take a similar approach, the Hurricanes have been doing similar things with players like Kirifi.
61 Go to commentsROG has better chance to win a WC if he starts training and make himself eligible as a player. He won’t make the Ireland squad but I reckon he may get close with Namibia (needs to improve his Afrikaans) or Portugal. Both sides had 1000:1 odds to win the RWC in 2023 which is an improvement on ROG’s odds of winning a RWC as a coach. Unlike Top 14 teams, national teams can’t go shopping and buy the best players - you work with the available talent pool and turn them into world beaters.
8 Go to commentsthat backline nope that backline is terrible why would you have sevu Reece when he’s not even top 5 wingers in the comp why have Blackadder when there’s better players no Scott barret isn’t an automatic the guy is more of a liability than anything why have him there when you have samipeni who’s far far better
61 Go to commentsAh, good to find you Nick. Agree with everything about Cale. So much to like about his game
55 Go to comments