Citing over O'Driscoll tackle fails, but Grewcock banned for 2 months

evilhomer

So it seems that the citing over the tackle on BOD will go no further!
Tana Umaga and Keven Mealamu have gotten off without any punishment whatsoever!

But Danny Grewcock has been handed a two month ban which ends his tour participation for "biting" Keven Mealamu.

O'Driscoll himself said that the tackle which left him with a dislocated shoulder was a "Cheap Shot".

O'Driscoll is not known for saying something like that unless he genuinely thought that it was deliberate. I'm personally disgusted at the outcome of the citing. How could it not be seen as wreckless and dangerous play?
I'm not saying they wanted to hurt him but they ment to lift him off his feet.

as for the Grewcock incident I didn't see it personally but according to the citing report Mealamu's finger ended up accidentally in Grewcocks mouth but he failed to remove it in an appropiate manner!

It seems a bit harsh to ban someone for two months for a little bite on the finger intentional or not and then let off two players who deliberatly doubled up on BOD for an illegal tackle.

Davei141

Yeah its not like the guys finger is hanging off and he misses the rest of the tour, absolute joke. What would people think of the lions team turning their backs to the haka as a sign of protest at the incident and the diabolical decision to let them get away with it.

besty

i'd say grewcock's reputation went against him over the hearing.they were hardly gonna cite golden boy umaga either

Chucky the tree

Davei141 wrote:

Yeah its not like the guys finger is hanging off and he misses the rest of the tour, absolute joke. What would people think of the lions team turning their backs to the haka as a sign of protest at the incident and the diabolical decision to let them get away with it.

i was thinkin the same. THey were saying BOD threwing the grass up was a sign of DISrespect so thats why the players where pissed of and might of targetted him.

Illkillya

evilhomer wrote:

But Danny Grewcock has been handed a two month ban which ends his tour participation for "biting" Keven Mealamu.

O'Driscoll himself said that the tackle which left him with a dislocated shoulder was a "Cheap Shot".

Well as any undead rogue would tell you, a stealthy cheap shot is often hard to detect, while to canibalize with so many people around is really asking for it.

Nukem

Really am disgusted at that. Umanga and the hooker went to town on him off the ball and thats the most dangerous type of tackle there is hence the severe punishments that have been handed out. As i recall Lomu was banned for a while when he did it on someone. Can the lodge an offical IRB complaint not just with the match official. Anyone got andy straming vids of the tackle,the new one that i keep hearing about.

Nukem

Chucky the tree

is there any video of grewcock having his mid-match snack?

amacachi

Chucky the tree wrote:

i was thinkin the same. THey were saying BOD threwing the grass up was a sign of respect so thats why the players where pissed of and might of targetted him.

it was a sign of respect so they got pissed at him? nice logic there.

dont know about the grewcock thing, but those two newzealanders should get the **** kicked out of them in the next match if the lions have any pride whatsoever

rugbug86

yeah, it was on sky earlier, its not very clear, like it could go either way (and i watched it a few times, have sky plus)
think his reputation did something from him

and i think the decision on o driscoll is shocking

and i think paul o connell was trying to have a dig at the kiwis but got sin binned. IMO the ref was a bit of a homer, in every way possible

Davei141

They never felt disrespect from the grass thing, what a farcical and downright lie. When a war dance is performed they( those observing) are supposed to pick up a leaf, the leaf is a sign of respect and peace. The grass was the leaf.

omb0wyn5ehpij9

Absolutely shocking decision over the o'driscoll tackle. As woodward said in his statement, it should have been looked into at the very least

shuushh

that thing about the grass has been completley and comically misunderstood by idiotic portions of the media and it means exactly what dave says above, anyway o'driscoll is a person who seems to pride himself on having alot of respect for the opposition so i cant see him doing anything offensive

i think new zealand were trying to send a message early on and so they purposely targeted trhe most important player, shocking decision really

ah well 2 games to go, the one good thing to come from this is i would imagine a serious siege mentality within the lions squad now and we can expect a much better performance next saturday

okay, not agreeing with the tackle, but some people are blowing it out of proportion. Whenever i played rugby, i was always told that my first tackle was the important one, set the tone for the match and all that. So its not exactly unusual for the first tackle, or ruck you hit, to be done a little too hard.

BUT they took it too far, definitely. It was dangerous, and reckless, no denying that. But it was just a welcoming shot, not unlike the one roy keane gave Mark Overmars when we played Holland.

It went too far, but it was just a welcoming shot imo, not a ploy from the off to remove our foremost attacker.

Screwdriver

Although biting should be banned it's not half as bad as the spear tackle. The match official should be banned for doing nothing about it.

evilhomer

I don't think anyone is saying it was a deliberate attempt to injure O'Driscoll Jazlynn Scrawny Flower.
But wether it was or not they still should have been punished for a dangerous tackle.

Chucky the tree

Chucky the tree wrote:

i was thinkin the same. THey were saying BOD threwing the grass up was a sign of DISrespect so thats why the players where pissed of and might of targetted him.

and

shuushh wrote:

that thing about the grass has been completley and comically misunderstood by idiotic portions of the media and it means exactly what dave says above, anyway o'driscoll is a person who seems to pride himself on having alot of respect for the opposition so i cant see him doing anything offensive

i think new zealand were trying to send a message early on and so they purposely targeted trhe most important player, shocking decision really

ah well 2 games to go, the one good thing to come from this is i would imagine a serious siege mentality within the lions squad now and we can expect a much better performance next saturday

it was in response to these two quotes. Just think that some people are making monsters out of men.

Davei141

Most monsters are men.

Hydroquinone

BOD must be gutted. It was a bad tackle and it's a blow for the Lions.
I wonder if any of the mentallers and non-rugby fans who were hoping that Wilkinson would be stretchered off in this match know what karma means?
Naah. Probably not.
I'm not saying it was only on this board, but in various places, the number of people relishing the thought that he'd tackled and damaged by this very same Tana Umaga were insane. Perhaps they'll cop on. Though I doubt it.

MG

The BOD tackle was a disgrace no doubt and should at least have been referred further. However, the way Woodward has used the incident to detract attention from the shambolic efforts of the team - his team - is even more disgraceful. Woodward got it horribly wrong in team selection and in forgetting to have a game plan and no amount of south african citing commissioner shenanigans should distract us from that fact.

qwertyup

Much as I'm absolutely gutted for O'Driscoll, I do think some of the reaction is a little ott. We didn't go on half as much after Darcy's spear tackle, and it strikes me as wrong to do so simply because he was lucky enough that the player wasn't injured.

scuba steve

That was disgracful what happened to BOD, he was obviously targetted from the start and to think that there was no punishment is just bad form

PJG

yeah it happened, but its only distracting from the real issues, lions were crap, wrong team picked, no plan B when it all went pear shaped.

MG

PJG wrote:

no plan B when it all went pear shaped.

Was there even a plan A?

CJhaughey

MG wrote:

Was there even a plan A?

Regardless of Plan A, B or maybe C, first od all you have to have a team capable of executing the Plan.
Plainly the Lions do not have a team capable of doing that.
They were outclassed in every single facet of the game, bar none.

damnyanks

Not too sure about defence. Never tested the new zealand defence

LostinBlanch

CJhaughey wrote:

Regardless of Plan A, B or maybe C, first od all you have to have a team capable of executing the Plan.
Plainly the Lions do not have a team capable of doing that.
They were outclassed in every single facet of the game, bar none.

Didn't you hear Hook on Newstalk this morning he said that they changed the lineout calls the day before the match! FFS what were they at?