john hayes - 6 weeks ban

normanbond

gotta post this new thread-
as I'm gutted that being the gentleman of irish rugby stands for nought in the modern game of rugby. John Hayes got 6 weeks suspension this evening for an alleged stamping offence in the recent Magners League game against Leinster. John Hayes has effectively and literally carried the glam boys of Irish rugby on his back during our successful triple crown, grand slam and heinekin cup successes.

It appears that our 'friends' up in Ravenhill tonight didn't take much of that into consideration when dishing out their 'justice' in running the rule over John Hayes's rucking of young Cian Healy who had found himself crawling around under the feet of a disrupted Munster mawl.

I'm annoyed that being an honest broker like Hayes is rarely rewarded. Good luck to Leinster, they were by far the better team on the night.
Good luck also to Nathan Hines for capitalising on the obvious deficiencies in the match referee's eyesight.

mayordenis

I have to say - I honestly looked at it a couple of times and don't believe it to of been intentional - think it's massively harsh.

Risteard

I'm disappointed as well but I don't think we can argue with the judgement. I truly believe it was an act of madness that was not intended for his head. However, it was still dangerous play and even the Bull can't be above laws with regard to stamping. It doesn't colour my opinion of him as one of the gentlemen of rugby and I think he still will as he deserves to go down as a great, clean player. It's more than I expected but I'm not surprised.

Personally I'm glad in a way as it shows that we are taking discipline seriously as opposed to our celtic cousins who failed to even cite Rhys Thomas after his Superfly Snuka impression.

Hyperbullet

Risteard wrote: »

I'm disappointed as well but I don't think we can argue with the judgement. I truly believe it was an act of madness that was not intended for his head. However, it was still dangerous play and even the Bull can't be above laws with regard to stamping. It doesn't colour my opinion of him as one of the gentlemen of rugby and I think he still will as he deserves to go down as a great, clean player. It's more than I expected but I'm not surprised.

Personally I'm glad in a way as it shows that we are taking discipline seriously as opposed to our celtic cousins who failed to even cite Rhys Thomas after his Superfly Snuka impression.

More or less sums is up. Moment of madness and he'll serve his ban.

Nukem

To be honest I thought he would get a way worse punishment as at one stage he had both feet off the deck. Don't think he intentionally went for his head or to caus damage though.

One question though - why has no one queried why the ref didn't blow up for the Healy on the deck as it is dangerous and that's why they band the bringing down of mauls. He actually blew up for the scrap between Hines and Leamy not Healy - poor reffing and shows an ineptitude that could potentially cause a more serious injury IMO

thebaz

it was hardly gentelmanly behaviour to stamp on Healy as he did - did you see the state of Healys face , and he was lucky - Stupid act from a loyal servant , just take the punishment

[Jackass]

The ban ends the day before the first Autumn international......enough said.

LeeroyJones

normanbond wrote: »

gotta post this new thread-
as I'm gutted that being the gentleman of irish rugby stands for nought in the modern game of rugby. John Hayes got 6 weeks suspension this evening for an alleged stamping offence in the recent Magners League game against Leinster. John Hayes has effectively and literally carried the glam boys of Irish rugby on his back during our successful triple crown, grand slam and heinekin cup successes.

It appears that our 'friends' up in Ravenhill tonight didn't take much of that into consideration when dishing out their 'justice' in running the rule over John Hayes's rucking of young Cian Healy who had found himself crawling around under the feet of a disrupted Munster mawl.

I'm annoyed that being an honest broker like Hayes is rarely rewarded. Good luck to Leinster, they were by far the better team on the night.
Good luck also to Nathan Hines for capitalising on the obvious deficiencies in the match referee's eyesight.

Not one player is above the law regardless of their record. Hayes has been and still is one of the finest servants to the Irish game. 6 weeks is fair call. Now that the judgement has been passed lets all just accept it and move on.

ch2008

normanbond wrote: »

gotta post this new thread-
as I'm gutted that being the gentleman of irish rugby stands for nought in the modern game of rugby. John Hayes got 6 weeks suspension this evening for an alleged stamping offence in the recent Magners League game against Leinster. John Hayes has effectively and literally carried the glam boys of Irish rugby on his back during our successful triple crown, grand slam and heinekin cup successes.

It appears that our 'friends' up in Ravenhill tonight didn't take much of that into consideration when dishing out their 'justice' in running the rule over John Hayes's rucking of young Cian Healy who had found himself crawling around under the feet of a disrupted Munster mawl.

I'm annoyed that being an honest broker like Hayes is rarely rewarded. Good luck to Leinster, they were by far the better team on the night.
Good luck also to Nathan Hines for capitalising on the obvious deficiencies in the match referee's eyesight.

Completely disagree. Great guy, but deserved to be punnished. he'd probably agree with the punnishment himself

irishbucsfan

Agree with all who agree with this ban. I would say that Hayes' excellent disciplinary record and great service to the Irish team has helped keep this ban as short as it is. If Quinlan had done it, it would have been a far more serious ban.

G

Hayes is a legend, I think he's brilliant, but unfortunately there was nothing alleged about it.

It was reckless but he'll be back.

Kalashnikov_Kid

normanbond wrote: »

gotta post this new thread-
as I'm gutted that being the gentleman of irish rugby stands for nought in the modern game of rugby. John Hayes got 6 weeks suspension this evening for an alleged stamping offence in the recent Magners League game against Leinster. John Hayes has effectively and literally carried the glam boys of Irish rugby on his back during our successful triple crown, grand slam and heinekin cup successes.

It appears that our 'friends' up in Ravenhill tonight didn't take much of that into consideration when dishing out their 'justice' in running the rule over John Hayes's rucking of young Cian Healy who had found himself crawling around under the feet of a disrupted Munster mawl.

I'm annoyed that being an honest broker like Hayes is rarely rewarded. Good luck to Leinster, they were by far the better team on the night.
Good luck also to Nathan Hines for capitalising on the obvious deficiencies in the match referee's eyesight.

He had a cheap shot at a young up-and-coming front row. If it was a true piss-take 2 week ban or something, it could set a precedent to other senior players with good disciplinary records to do the same - if they would think that they would get away with doing so.

anonymous_joe

[Jackass] wrote: »

The ban ends the day before the first Autumn international......enough said.

The ML disciplinary system makes FF look honest and above board.

shoutman

normanbond wrote: »

gotta post this new thread-
as I'm gutted that being the gentleman of irish rugby stands for nought in the modern game of rugby. John Hayes got 6 weeks suspension this evening for an alleged stamping offence in the recent Magners League game against Leinster. John Hayes has effectively and literally carried the glam boys of Irish rugby on his back during our successful triple crown, grand slam and heinekin cup successes.

It appears that our 'friends' up in Ravenhill tonight didn't take much of that into consideration when dishing out their 'justice' in running the rule over John Hayes's rucking of young Cian Healy who had found himself crawling around under the feet of a disrupted Munster mawl.

I'm annoyed that being an honest broker like Hayes is rarely rewarded. Good luck to Leinster, they were by far the better team on the night.
Good luck also to Nathan Hines for capitalising on the obvious deficiencies in the match referee's eyesight.

Get the blinkers off!

That whole post is absolute nonsense!
You try to make it out as if he single handedly won the grand slam and the heineken cup. And then go on to insinuate it was some sort of Ulster conspiracy that Hayes got a ban at all.

Yes Hayes is a renowned gent, but that does not count for an iota when he acts like he did on saturday. It was a disgraceful act, from an emotional man, but none the less it is 100% unacceptable and I think it was his reputation alone that meant he only got six weeks.

TBH your whole post smacks of sour grapes after a hugely disappointing display from the Munster side.

yimrsg

I think the ban is justifed; simply put Hayes stamped on a players face. Yes, the player on the ground was in the wrong, but it's not for the players to determine punishment. His clean record over a long career no doubt allowed the disciplinary board to be lenient in its judgement.

As for Hines being lucky with selective sight by the referee, Leamy was involved with Hines and Wright (handbags) at some point during the match. Hines v Leamy occured immediately following Healy's shoeing so was disregarded in the grand scheme of things.

conf101

I assume he's not only banned from playing for six weeks but also from taking part in collective team training? Or am I mistaken?

If I'm right could the ban still have implications for him in the AIs, or the Australia match at least? He won't be training with the Irish squad before the Aus match as his ban ends the day before it so will possibly end up missing this match at least?

2040

shoutman wrote: »

Yes Hayes is a renowned gent, but that does not count for an iota when he acts like he did on saturday.

I don't mean to be pedantic or anything but it does. A good record means a more lenient sentence, as is the case in any court/tribunal in any liberal democracy.

Chucky the tree

Disgraceful bias on the part of IRFU. Sexton gets 2 weeks for kicking a Munster player in the face while Hayes gets 6?

Ciaran-Irl

Chucky the tree wrote: »

Disgraceful bias on the part of IRFU. Sexton gets 2 weeks for kicking a Munster player in the face while Hayes gets 6?

Do you actually think the IRFU is biased towards Sexton? They favour Sexton? How, does he bribe them? Maybe they just love him as a player for some reason? Seriously, that's a touch paranoid, isn't it? Maybe you mean that they favour Leinster more than Munster. Is this the only bit of evidence for that though, or do you have a closet full of stuff from over the years?

Seriously, watch this please Munster fans. Watch it a few times. Hines vs Leamy is clearly a reaction to the stamping and the wrenching at Hines' face. Pause it at 14 seconds and watch it slowly a couple of times. It is certainly no worse than the punch Leamy gives Stan at the begining of the clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0_2SlfCpSc

I think Hayes got off lightly. He is lucky the internationals are coming up at that time. A true gentleman of the game, and I'm disappointed in him. More disappointed in POC though. He stamps there too, and his mouthing off at the ref is unlike him.

Hayes stamping repeatedly on the head of a player from above is a touch worse than a blind kick at mafi while on the ground, though that was wrong too.

pappyodaniel

Peter Clohessy got a 26 week ban for something similar in the mid 90s. I know Clohessy's was definately intentional but who's to say Hayes' stamp was or wasn't?(it looked bad in my opinion and find it hard to defend him). I think Hayes 6 week ban is reflective of his standing in the game. It's a fair call in my opinion.

Chucky the tree

Ciaran-Irl wrote: »

Do you actually think the IRFU is biased towards Sexton? They favour Sexton? How, does he bribe them? Maybe they just love him as a player for some reason? Seriously, that's a touch paranoid, isn't it? Maybe you mean that they favour Leinster more than Munster. Is this the only bit of evidence for that though, or do you have a closet full of stuff from over the years?

Maybe the fact that at the business end of the season IRFU didn't want to hamper Leinster chances of the HEC and ML? I have no idea why the IRFU felt one kick to the face deserved 4 weeks extra compared to another, do you?

Ciaran-Irl wrote: »

Seriously, watch this please Munster fans. Watch it a few times. Hines vs Leamy is clearly a reaction to the stamping and the wrenching at Hines' face. Pause it at 14 seconds and watch it slowly a couple of times. It is certainly no worse than the punch Leamy gives Stan at the begining of the clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0_2SlfCpSc

I think Hayes got off lightly. He is lucky the internationals are coming up at that time. A true gentleman of the game, and I'm disappointed in him. More disappointed in POC though. He stamps there too, and his mouthing off at the ref is unlike him.

Hayes stamping repeatedly on the head of a player from above is a touch worse than a blind kick at mafi while on the ground, though that was wrong too.

Reaction to the stamping? Hines can't even see the stamping. Hines re-acts to Leamy trying to drag Hines off the maul where LEamy went to high and around his neck, he shouldn't of done that but Hines nearly tried to take his head off and how the ref didn't do anything is beyond me? He's looking right at it, see's and blows the game up because of it then takes no action against Hines? So is perfectly acceptable to throw digs on the rugby pitch now as long as you don't connect? He only stood on his head once, I have no idea why you added repeatedly in bold.

chupacabra

Incredibly Disappointed. Not in Hayes, that goes without saying. Disappointed in the IRFU for such a lenient ban. The Leinster Munster game was a game that a lot of young aspiring players in this country would have watched and for Hayes to do what he did, regardless of the circumstance or his "intent" was utterly unacceptable. I was expecting an 8 week ban, letting him off for the first AI is stupid and makes a mockery of the disciplinary system. I don't think many posters on this forum realized the potential damage Hayes could have done to Healy had his foot been one or 2 inches to the left or right. Permanent eye sight loss and serious head injuries are the order of the day for such a thing.

pappyodaniel

Healy should getta call up for the Autumn internationals...he may even be propping up the scrum alongside Hayes and O'Connell behind him. It will be forgotten about, just like Quinny's incident with Cullen and another talikng point will arise of who did what to who.

Ciaran-Irl

Chucky the tree wrote: »

Maybe the fact that at the business end of the season IRFU didn't want to hamper Leinster chances of the HEC and ML? I have no idea why the IRFU felt one kick to the face deserved 4 weeks extra compared to another, do you?

Reaction to the stamping? Hines can't even see the stamping. Hines re-acts to Leamy trying to drag Hines off the maul where LEamy went to high and around his neck, he shouldn't of done that but Hines nearly tried to take his head off and how the ref didn't do anything is beyond me? He's looking right at it, see's and blows the game up because of it then takes no action against Hines? So is perfectly acceptable to throw digs on the rugby pitch now as long as you don't connect? He only stood on his head once, I have no idea why you added repeatedly in bold.

One was far worse than the other. Hayes stamps repeatedly. Connects once. Massive difference to a wild lashing out with the foot. I can't believe how incredulous you sound. Go through this and other threads and count how many munster fans say how they can't defend him.

I do think it is paranoid to think that the IRFU favoured Sexton. Sexton was never going to play in the HEC at that point, when The Doc was injury free. Hayes with his billion Ireland caps and massive salary is treated less favourably, is it?

Fair enough - Hines' wasn't a reaction to stamping, but he is hardly lucky. That Leamy punch on stand is one of a few examples on both sides. The choking from Leamy was just as bad.

ALH-06

Chucky the tree wrote: »

Maybe the fact that at the business end of the season IRFU didn't want to hamper Leinster chances of the HEC and ML? I have no idea why the IRFU felt one kick to the face deserved 4 weeks extra compared to another, do you?

If you are genuinely seeking to compare those two incidents then there is clearly no point in even trying to discuss the matter with you. Accusing the IRFU of bias is risible when your point is so ridiculously blinkered in itself.

NickNolte

Chucky the tree wrote: »

Disgraceful bias on the part of IRFU. Sexton gets 2 weeks for kicking a Munster player in the face while Hayes gets 6?

Jesus. Welcome to my ignore list.

Hayes got what he deserved. That doesn't change the fact that most Leinster supporters and players will forgive and forget very quickly so let's just accept the ruling and get over it.

Colm_OReilly

Was reading Tony Ward (I think yesterday) and he said the incident has to be considered independent of the player. Is this the legal standpoint in the IRFU/IRB rules?

What exactly does the ban entail? Can he take part in group training?

MG

Lack of consistency between disciplinary hearings has made a farce of the whole thing. Reform is badly needed.

buck65

6 weeks is about right. Harsh but not overly. Any more would have been too much. Re the Sexton ban - 2 weeks was lenient but this has no bearing on this case . Would expect Munster to appeal and get a reduction to 4 weeks at best. Still he is away for the next 2 games against N'hampton and Treviso (not perpignan as Today FM are still claiming) and will be well short of match time for the AIs.

bamboozle

I rewatched the match and on 2 occassions DOC was at the bottom of Leinster mauls and did not receive any shoeing.
There were 2 incidents where leamy raked players on the floor.
regarding the Healy incident i'm astonished POC wasnt also cited.
Hayes at one point had both of his feet on healys shoulders.
Leamy involved in handbags with Wright and more serious with Hines.

IFRU conveniently ending the ban prior to the AI's is pathetic.
Healy and Hayes will (if they have not already done so) shake hands and forget about it.

Bottom line is the manner in which disciplinary matters are dealt with in the Magners league needs to be immediately addressed.

murphym7

pappyodaniel wrote: »

Peter Clohessy got a 26 week ban for something similar in the mid 90s. I know Clohessy's was definately intentional but who's to say Hayes' stamp was or wasn't?(it looked bad in my opinion and find it hard to defend him). I think Hayes 6 week ban is reflective of his standing in the game. It's a fair call in my opinion.

I was wodering when the Claw's stamping would be metioned here. The Claws stamping was far worse and very cynical from a player who was renowened for dirty play, not that similar to the Bulls stamping, even though the Bulls looks deliberate.

6 weeks is fair, any more would have been harsh. Stupid thing to do.

Spiritoftheseventies

thebaz wrote: »

it was hardly gentelmanly behaviour to stamp on Healy as he did - did you see the state of Healys face , and he was lucky - Stupid act from a loyal servant , just take the punishment

Yes this Munster Leinster rivalry getting out of hand. We had the gouging incident on Cullen and now this.
Time to nip this in the bud.

buck65

bayviewclose wrote: »

Yes this Munster Leinster rivalry getting out of hand. We had the gouging incident on Cullen and now this.
Time to nip this in the bud.

There have been more incidents than the 2 you mentioned.

twinytwo

iv said this before.. but the whole system is out of wack.. its a joke as there are no set bans of incidents...

Burgers gouge on fitz on the lions tour gets him 6 weeks

Quinlin does Cullen and gets 8

Best gets 18 weeks for the same offence

Drico gets smashed by tawhata and they only give him like a 2 game ban

ABs take drico out incident ignored

Tuqiri's spear on macaw which is on of the worst spears iv ever seen gets 5 match ban

and the list goes on.

the whol;e system is messed up and its not just here.

Spiritoftheseventies

buck65 wrote: »

There have been more incidents than the 2 you mentioned.

Yes was just talking about the two most recent ones. The gouging for me was worse of the two.
Sure the Bull is a model professional but this kind of carry on in games has to stop. These are well paid professionals who should be setting an example for younger players.

Fozzie Bear

Hayes is and always will be a legend in Irish eyes, even with this one blot on his record. If nothing else it show Hayes is simply human. Healy was lying on the ground trying to bring down the maul. Hayes got frustrated with this and probably the game and tried to stamp on him. I don't doubt for a second that he deliberately went for his head/face. Hayes own head was up so he could not see what he was stamping on, he just lashed out without being able to see what he was lashing at. Even if you don't share this view it was still at best dangerous play and he will rightly serve a ban and get a slap on the wrist.

As someone else said its a 6 week ban that ends the day before the first Autumn international. It could have been a hell of a lot worse for Hayes and Healy, thankfully its not. Irish rugby can hold its head high once again as they did not fudge this or sweep it under the carpet as our Welsh cousins did.

Its over and done with now. MOVE ON!

Spiritoftheseventies

Fozzie Bear wrote: »

Hayes is and always will be a legend in Irish eyes, even with this one blot on his record. If nothing else it show Hayes is simply human. Healy was lying on the ground trying to bring down the maul. Hayes got frustrated with this and probably the game and tried to stamp on him. I don't doubt for a second that he deliberately went for his head/face. Hayes own head was up so he could not see what he was stamping on, he just lashed out without being able to see what he was lashing at. Even if you don't share this view it was still at best dangerous play and he will rightly serve a ban and get a slap on the wrist.

As someone else said its a 6 week ban that ends the day before the first Autumn international. It could have been a hell of a lot worse for Hayes and Healy, thankfully its not. Irish rugby can hold its head high once again as they did not fudge this or sweep it under the carpet as our Welsh cousins did.

Its over and done with now. MOVE ON!

Again in last two matches involving teams, player from team has gone out with intent to injure another. So clearly we have not moved on!

justsomebloke

Chucky the tree wrote: »

So is perfectly acceptable to throw digs on the rugby pitch now as long as you don't connect?

Actually Jerry Flannery could of been cited quite easily for throwing digs on Saturday near the end of the match, luckily he just missed the player though and got away with it

Tim Robbins

Risteard wrote: »

Personally I'm glad in a way as it shows that we are taking discipline seriously as opposed to our celtic cousins who failed to even cite Rhys Thomas after his Superfly Snuka impression.

Exactly.
You ref a J4 game you get allegations of stamping, gouging every game.

There has to be an ethos in Rugby where certain things are completly unacceptable. It's dangerous enough as it is.

If you can get away with stamping when you have:
1. A very experienced ref
2. Two very experienced TJ's
3. About 10 different camera angles

In the heat of the moment, these things are just going to happen a lot more at the lower levels where it's harder to catch people.

It's a player responsibilities where he puts his feet. You may say "but Hayse wasn't looking where he put his feet" well then how did he know he was rucking anywhere near the ball?

The second this is proportionality. It's possible to ruck the ball by giving a little nick with your foot in backwards motion (which won't do anyone any harm) and it's also possible to use the most downward pressure possible without going anywhere near the ball.

On that basis I think Hayse is lucky. The saftey of the game has to come before Ireland, Munster and how much we like a person unfortunately.

Spiritoftheseventies

Tim Robbins wrote: »

Exactly.
You ref a J4 game you get allegations of stamping, gouging every game.

There has to be an ethos in Rugby where certain things are completly unacceptable. It's dangerous enough as it is.

If you can get away with stamping when you have:
1. A very experienced ref
2. Two very experienced TJ's
3. About 10 different camera angles

In the heat of the moment, these things are just going to happen a lot more at the lower levels where it's harder to catch people.

It's a player responsibilities where he puts his feet. You may say "but Hayse wasn't looking where he put his feet" well then how did he know he was rucking anywhere near the ball?

The second this is proportionality. It's possible to ruck the ball by giving a little nick with your foot in backwards motion (which won't do anyone any harm) and it's also possible to use the most downward pressure possible without going anywhere near the ball.

On that basis I think Hayse is lucky. The saftey of the game has to come before Ireland, Munster and how much we like a person unfortunately.

Yes its seems to be a grey area ie rucking for the ball and interfering with another player. But ref if he is doing job can tell player to step away if he over rucking as was case with Hayes. Happens very quickly but think we are getting a lot of "incidents" happening in the rucks of late
My only suggestion to is to introduce a face guard along same lines as hurling helmet and thereby you would eliminate a lot of these injuries and speed the game up in the process.

justsomebloke

Truthfully I think the 6 week ban is just the IRFU pretending to go down hard on Hayes. Even if the ban is reduced to 4 weeks As far as I can see he would still miss the same amount of games. So they "extend" it to 6 weeks so that they can pretend to be making an example of him. The fact that he is going to be available for the AI's says it all though.

Truthfully the worst thing hayes did was doing it in the biggest derby game of the year. Chances are if it had been against anyone especially if it wasn't an Irish team he may have gotten a lesser sentence

MG

bayviewclose wrote: »

Yes this Munster Leinster rivalry getting out of hand.

Quite agree

bayviewclose wrote: »

We had the gouging incident on Cullen and now this.

I think you mean contact with the "eye area"

twinytwo wrote: »

Quinlin does Cullen and gets 8

the whol;e system is messed up and its not just here.

It was 12 but yes the system is a mess.

I think the feeling in Munster is that 6 weeks is fine but totally inconsistent, especially with Leinster. We look at Leinster's last three citings for kicking a player in the face, stamping on an opponents head and striking a player with bans for the three offences combined of 4 weeks and it makes Hayes 6 weeks look bizarre.

Spiritoftheseventies

Joe the Santa wrote: »

Truthfully I think the 6 week ban is just the IRFU pretending to go down hard on Hayes. Even if the ban is reduced to 4 weeks As far as I can see he would still miss the same amount of games. So they "extend" it to 6 weeks so that they can pretend to be making an example of him. The fact that he is going to be available for the AI's says it all though.

Truthfully the worst thing hayes did was doing it in the biggest derby game of the year. Chances are if it had been against anyone especially if it wasn't an Irish team he may have gotten a lesser sentence

Yes should we deduce anything from fact that in last two games played when Munster have been well beaten they have gouged one player and stamped on another.
Like I said rivalry is good for the game but these off the ball incidents are not.

Amabokke

Justice is served. What you do for your country is irrelevant when it comes to dangerous play. If it was Schalk ALL on here would've shouted "ban for life". What's good for one player is good for another regardless who you play for.

simon ritchie

whilst its unfortunate that a great player like hayes got a ban...the fact is a stamp is a stamp and they have to go after the stamper. the fact that he has never been sent off before is irrelevant....and surely player are not supposed to be sent off in the first place?

thats like the wagons on the phone show saying "my son has never been in trouble, he;s only been to jail twice".


i was at the match and there was alot of dirty play in the rucks from munster. mainly due to frustration i think.

The Rooster

There was plenty of handbags throughout the game. Hines/Leamy and Flannery have already been mentioned. O'Callaghan clocked Sexton one when Sexton fell to the ground too, but of course the worst was the Hayes incident.

Certainly reckless and dangerous at a minimum. 9 week ban was the actual punishment, which was given on the basis that the head/face was not deliberately targeted. The last 3 weeks waived on account of previous good record. Its reasonably fair I think.

dub_skav

Why are a lot of people on this thread going on about rucking being different from stamping?

There was no possibility for legal rucking here, it was a maul. Any contact with players on the ground could be either accidental or stamping, there is no comparison to trying to free the ball by rucking.

Tefral

Something that puzzles me and nobody here has said it, is that they (IRFU) deemed the incident to be accidental. (from this mornings papers) if they deem it accidental then surely given his record that 6 weeks is a harsh sentence. I think it goes back to what a previous poster mentioned about it looking like the IRFU making it seem harsh so it seems fair.

While i am a massive Munster fan and was dissappointed at the result of the game, this whole thing just made things worse. The game (even though we were loosing) was still a good game to watch up until that point.

For someone to go something like 16 years without so much as a sending off or incident in rugby especially in the days before such scrutiny where you could have possibly have gotten away with it has to mean something, i think 6 weeks is harsh but as was said, they could have given him 4 and he would have still been out for the next three matches anyway.

One thing i would think about is when talking about the bull in years to come, everyone will mention, "remember that time he got sent off in the Munster V Leinster game" that to me would be a terrible punishment in itself

buck65

This will be all forgotten about once he returns.

SpAcEd OuT

The Rooster wrote: »

There was plenty of handbags throughout the game. Hines/Leamy and Flannery have already been mentioned. O'Callaghan clocked Sexton one when Sexton fell to the ground too, but of course the worst was the Hayes incident.

I find it absolutely pathetic that the likes of O'Callaghan, Hayes and O'Connell, all some of the most senior players in the Irish set up decided to behave in such a manner to their future team mates. I also couldn't understand Quinlan gouging at Cullen's eyes but I think this is different as both Healy and Sexton are young, future internationals and will probably be looking to the senior international players for guidance in weeks to come.

Shocking behaviour to be honest.

Also those comparing Sexton's inciddent to Hayes really need to look at it objectively. Sexton, in a lying position kicked out at Mafi. You can see there is little power behind the kick and it was a flash of madness this is reflected in the measley 2 week ban. In Haye's case he repeatedly, from a standing position, wildly stamped down on a player in a prone position on the ground. The fact that his ban ends the day before the first AI game leads me to believe that the IRFU believe Hayes should most definitely have gotten more but need him for the AI.

Risteard

SpAcEd OuT wrote: »

Also those comparing Sexton's inciddent to Hayes really need to look at it objectively. Sexton, in a lying position kicked out at Mafi. You can see there is little power behind the kick and it was a flash of madness this is reflected in the measley 2 week ban. In Haye's case he repeatedly, from a standing position, wildly stamped down on a player in a prone position on the ground. The fact that his ban ends the day before the first AI game leads me to believe that the IRFU believe Hayes should most definitely have gotten more but need him for the AI.

So because there's little power in the kick it makes a difference? Sexton intended to kick Mafi just because he didn't do much damage shouldn't excuse him should it?

May I ask were you making such a fuss when O' Kelly only got 2 weeks for a near identical incident with Vickery?

Hayes has been punished. His offence was considered at the top end of the scale, and sentence was reduced (rightfully) due to his excellent record. It was a 'flash of madness' as you likened to Sexton's case. If you don't think it was a 'flash of madness' then you must think Hayes went out from the start with the intention of doing damage to Healy which quite frankly is ridiculous.

He's gotten his punishment, it's time to move on.