Despite the Wales v Ireland Six Nations clash on Saturday providing more than its fair share of talking points, one incident in particular continues to dominate the post-match agenda.
After Irish centre Garry Ringrose was shown a yellow card in the first half at the Principality Stadium for making head contact with Welsh counterpart Ben Thomas, his punishment was later upgraded to a 20-minute red card - meaning he was banished from the field for the rest of the game but Ireland were allowed to replace him after a period of 20 minutes.
Was it the correct call to upgrade the initial yellow card to a 20-minute red, or was it too soft not to upgrade the decision to a full red card, meaning Ireland would have played more than half the game with only 14 men?
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Former international referee Nigel Owens believes it was a red-card offence. “There obviously was head contact, there was foul play,” he said. “It is a red card. You can debate whether the 20 minutes should be a full red, that’s a different conversation.
"When Ringrose comes in, he comes in at such speed, the onus is on him to avoid that head contact. If Ben Thomas had done something at the last minute....that would have meant that there was mitigation which would have meant that it would have remained at a yellow card. But because there was no mitigation, and the onus is on Ringrose because of player safety, it was quite rightly upgraded to a red card.”
When asked by Gabby Logan if the foul play merited a full red card, Owens replied: “Ringrose is not a dirty player, that’s not a dirty act, but if you want to change behaviour, if you want to get players to be more careful and avoid as much head contact as we can, is the 20-minute red card enough of a deterrent? That is the worry I have. But for the offence itself, it was not an act of thuggery.”
Sam Warburton agreed with Owens, saying the ex-ref was “spot on”. But he asked: “Is it enough to change behaviour? Maybe 20 minutes isn’t enough of a punishment for Ireland to enforce behaviour change so that players’ tackle technique is spot on."
Meanwhile, former England World Cup winning captain Martin Johnson said: “I just think it was an accident. I don’t think he went to put head on head. You don’t do that when you tackle.” He also disagreed when it was suggested that the tackle was “reckless”.
Elsewhere, former Ireland international-turned-pundit Shane Horgan wrote in The Times: “Does Garry Ringrose’s red card count as an individual error? Certainly, he may have to revisit his tackle technique. He has made a habit of sniffing opportunities to rush infield and smash man and ball, often to devastating effect, but there’s an obvious risk when you accelerate into contact like this. Unlike the TMO, I believe there might have been a mitigating factor in Ben Thomas’s late foot-work but I wasn’t surprised when yellow became red.”
Ireland’s interim head coach Simon Easterby, however, thinks the punishment “could have been yellow”, defending Ringrose post-match by claiming he is “not a dirty player”. He added: “Those can go either way. Ringrose is a brilliant player for us. Everything he does is with intent, in terms of the speed he works. That’s probably cost him.”
However, another ex-pro, Tommy Bowe, had a different opinion. “I don’t think there’s any doubt about it, it is a red card. It’s a high shot by Garry Ringrose,” he said. “Normally one of the best defenders in world rugby, but he does have a habit of coming out of the line. That’s Robbie Henshaw’s man...Garry comes from the outside and tries to blindside him. He has to get lower. Ben Thomas puts a bit of footwork on him, but he has to get low.
“Garry Ringrose is not a reckless player, but he’s going to have to face a serious consequence, he’s going to have to get a ban, he’s going to get hit in the pocket with it, because unless you hit these players with proper sanctions, they’re going to keep on doing it and if he gets hit hard, he gets a long ban, he gets hit with a big fine, then he’ll think twice about doing it for a second time.”
