Finn Russell
Finn Russell, the Scotland outside half, appeared today before an independent Six Nations Disciplinary Committee at Heathrow, having been cited under Law 10.4 (e) and (i) for an alleged dangerous tackle of an opponent in the air in the 31st minute of the RBS 6 Nations match between Scotland and Wales on Sunday 15 February 2015.
The Disciplinary Committee, chaired by Mike Hamlin (England) along with Jean-Philippe Lachaume (France) and Pat Barriscale (Ireland), having heard from the player and his representative and viewed various TV angles of the incident, determined that Finn Russell had committed an act of foul play which merited a Red Card rather than the on-field Yellow Card given by the Match Officials.
The Disciplinary Committee decided that the offence should be categorised under Law 10.4 (i) and that it was reckless rather than deliberate. The Committee considered it at the lower end of World Rugby’s scale of seriousness carrying a 3 week suspension. It noted the absence of aggravating factors and the existence of certain mitigating factors, including the player’s clear disciplinary record, in applying a 1-week reduction from the entry point.
Finn Russell is suspended from playing until midnight on Sunday 1 March 2015 and has the right of appeal.
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Scottish Rugby today confirmed its intention to appeal the 2-week suspension of stand-off Finn Russell by an independent Six Nations discipline committee.
Am too annoyed by this at this stage I think to give a rational unbiased opinion on this one, but would like to ask a question – Can a panel consisting of 3 people that has 2 people on it from countries that Scotland still need to play in this 6 Nations (ie. Ireland and England) truly be an “independent” one?
Nortie you may remember at the time of the Russell incident I asked you for your thoughts as I wasn’t watching the game and you said you thought it deserved a yellow. Do you think it should have been a red and got the ban that it now has?
2 @ Bullscot:
Bully, no, in his case I thought the yellow was deserved and should have been enough of a punishment.
I also thought that the Welsh yellow was undeserved, it was as if the ref wanted to look “consistent”, but that’s rubbish IMO.
The degree of potential danger and seriousness of the offense should dictate the punishment.
This crap that has reared it’s head lately where the ref or TMO mentions “the player following the ball is responsible for the safety of the opponent” is utter shite……can someone show me where in the rugby rule book that particular phrase is written?
If both players are intent on fielding the ball, and one lands on his arse or head, so what? Accidents and collisions happen in rugby, so why punish a guy for trying to win his team the ball if he causes the opponent to fall, but was watching the ball and genuinely contesting?
@ nortie:
Hi nortie thanks for your reply. It’s a special day here so just popped in for a bit. Yip it was quite a soft one against Davies but he did tackle, even if only half, the player in the air and the Laws are very clear about that – it is not allowed. Whether there was a bit of compensation going or not I don’t know but for me according to the law the right decision was made there. Watching the replay of the game it looked to me as if Glen Jackson was getting an awful lot of ‘coaching’ by the vastly more experienced touch judge Clancy. I have long called for touch judges to be more involved and point things out a ref may miss so it may seem am contradicting things. But for me just the body language and other things he missed was ‘dear in the headlights’ type stuff. It was disappointing to see as the opinion I got from the forums was he was meant to be doing well and as a quite recent player would have a good feel for the game. Just shows a lot of the time that fast tracking folk is not the way to go.
Hey sorry for post with long paragraphs am posting on phone while walking the dog, need to get cracking. Think the Finn Russell decisions are one I will try to revisit some time when a bit quieter, maybe next week and by then we should have the outcome of the appeal. Phew thank goodness for predictive text
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