Holwell has red card rescinded

kenmc

http://www.leinsterrugby.ie/newspage/60597.html

At least some justice was done. bit bloody late though, after the fact.
I was under the impression that the touch judge could not "stick his bleedin nose in (technical term!)" unless he was positive of a good call. This was proved to be one of the worst calls I've ever seen! So what happens to the touch judge? Does he still get paid and nothing said to him? or does he face a disciplinary?
He should at least have his wages revoked for that match - what a major fcuk up. I mean there's plenty of precedent for citings after the match - if he was in any way unsure he should have let it go to a post-match citing.
what does everyone else think? ( I know munster fans won't be too upset about the decision, so their opinions don't carry much weight for this discussion!)

BolBill

Touch judge must be from Munster, a disgraceful decision and a very sad end to a great year from Holwell, Leinster are screwed without him next year, O'Meara is pants !!!!!

galwaydude

he will be playing again for leinster but only on a match to match basis and just for the heineken cup.
Any word on who will be getting the leinster job.

uberwolf

galwaydude wrote:

he will be playing again for leinster but only on a match to match basis and just for the heineken cup.
Any word on who will be getting the leinster job.

two things - Holwell may be avail for Heino -depends on his new club, if they do well they'll require Holwell till after the deadline passes for registering a player.

IT says today that David Nucifora formarlly of ACT Brumbles is the new hot tip.

BolBill

uberwolf wrote:

two things - Holwell may be avail for Heino -depends on his new club, if they do well they'll require Holwell till after the deadline passes for registering a player.

.

Where did you hear that?????

uberwolf

todays Irish Times

Peter B

Well Kenmc, my opinion may not have much weight since I am a
Munsterfan, however it is great that Holwells red card was recinded. I have seen him playing many games for Leinster, being at the matches or on TV and he struck me as a good honest player. I could not see the incident when I was at the match but as soon as the ref displayed 10 fingers to signify the offending player on the Leinster side I was surprised. Then when he took out a card (couldn't tell what colour). I said to my mate beside me, the linesman must have made a mistake. I could not imagine Holwell play dirty no matter the significance of the match. That includes something as petty as illegally slowing the ball down.

The linesman was an idiot to get a call so wrong. Just remember the linesman was not from Munster or was not paid off by Munster so don't look down on Munster for the linesman's mistake.

Great that Holwell wan go home with a clean sheet. Pitty he is not playing international level rugby!

BolBill

uberwolf wrote:

todays Irish Times

Link?

Trojan

Can't link to Times content unfortunately.

Peter_B wrote:

I could not imagine Holwell play dirty

Completely the opposite of the sentiment expressed to me by a Kiwi the next day.

Peter B

Trojan wrote:

Completely the opposite of the sentiment expressed to me by a Kiwi the next day.

Very surprised to hear that! In my memory of Holwell playing of Leinster he never did anything even half cheeky. He seemed to be a good honest outhalf that just wanted to play rugby.

I havn't watched that many Leinster games though.

kenmc

Peter_B,
I wasn't getting a dig in at munster, I'll be rooting for them on saturday anyway - was just some tongue-in-cheek I was getting in for the flurry of replies that I expected to get from Munster fans saying how it wouldn't have made any difference to the result anyway.
Never said/suspected/implied/other-big-words that the touch judge was either from or for munster, just that he was crap, and was mainly wondering what repurcussions it will have on his career if any? I mean surely they're not infallible, and must answer to their actions in the same way that a player must answer a disciplinary after being sent off. Whats good for the goose is surely good for the gander?

Trojan

Maybe we can have a ratemyref.ie

daveirl

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Sangre

Because Leinster had possession and the penalty for the the 'foul' caused a turn over to Munster which they promptly scored off.
Regardless of whether they would of lost or not the penalty caused the try.

RuggieBear

I think i sum it up quite succinctly here

Bri

^ haha!

Where did this Kiwi friend of yours see Holwell play dirty? i.e. Any particular incident?

Peter B

kenmc wrote:

touch judge was crap, and was mainly wondering what repurcussions it will have on his career if any? I mean surely they're not infallible, and must answer to their actions in the same way that a player must answer a disciplinary after being sent off. Whats good for the goose is surely good for the gander?

kenmc, I have to agree completely. The touch judge should recieve a fine, suspension or some sort of disciplinary hearing. Especially a decision that arguably turned a match.

I do believe Munster would have still won with those 6-8 minutes still on the clock, however it certainly has taken the shine off the win know that if the right calls had been made maybe there would be a different result.

I am worried for Leinster that without a decent (world class) outhalf they will not compete up to the level they can. Good backs are wasted with crap outhalves, and forwards seem to be doing an awful lot of pointless running (back forth). Moral is ruined on missed touches and missed penalties. I hope for Leinster's and Ireland's sake Holwell comes back as good out-halves are difficult to come by now.

daveirl

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Trojan

At the end of that clip it appears that he's about to get up off the ground. Moving forward at that point, it would be fairly easy to "accidentally" knee Stringer quite hard in the back of the neck[1]. That's one possibility.

Does anyone else think that Byrnes challenge on Stringer was bad?



1. Disagree? Try kneeling with one leg, and put a bag 3" in front of your knee. Try hit it hard.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

Trojan

I was very surprised, because it wasn't "tough, but fair" as I'd expect from an international teammate. Byrne's gone down in my estimation.

RuggieBear

Byrne was pretty petty....wish he was retiring. Actually i wish a heap of the players were retring so we could blood a load of new players.

TBH i've lost what little respect i had for stringer.....

Peter B

daveirl wrote:

This post has been deleted.

Great clip. Hadn't seen any of the incident on camera since I was at the match. Yea not so sure it was all that accidental. Does look a bit suspect.

Maybe Holwell got the red card recinded so he could go home with a clean slate. Not so sure though. Maybe it was just so the Celtic League didn't have to hand out a ban. I don't see how the CL committee could see more footage to be sure the incident didn't happen. Especially since the touch judge was so sure

daveirl

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Sangre

I think it looks worse from behind then the side, his knee doesn't hit him, his thigh glances his head. What happens afterwards we'll never really know.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

kermitdfrog

This has gone on long enough lads, let it go. Holwell has been vindicated. The video clip shows no intent or contact. I dont buy into the claims in some quarters that Stringer faked the whole thing (he certainly milked it, but its entirely plausable that he was hit by Holwells thigh). BUT to look at the footage and then claim we still dont know is to ignore the facts..

The TJ claimed that Holwell dropped his knee to hit Stringer. In the clip we can see holwell drop to his knees, and that there is no intentional or otherwise knee drop there, perhaps contact, which is inevitable (its a ruck!). If we accept this, the only remaining possibility which would lead to the TJ being right in his initial claim is that holwell got back up and dropped AGAIN. Now, seeing as noone, not the TJ or the fans (and I was stood directly in front of the incident) claimed that, it would be safe to assume we are missing nothing when the camera moves away

Just because the TJ was adamant in what he saw does no mean he didnt make a mistake. Watching the incident in real-time it is entirely possible to mistake what happened, especially if your focus is not purely on the players involved. The footage refutes any claims of wrong-doing on Holwell's part, as does the panels rescinding of the card - theories of letting it go to allow Holwell leave with a clean slate are a bit fantastical