AS JOHNNY SEXTON walked off the pitch at the RDS on Sunday night, the frustration was etched on his face. With 63 minutes on the clock, the Leinster captain was no doubt disappointed to be leaving the action early. He maybe also felt his injury-enforced removal was partly his own doing.
Speaking after the game, Leinster head coach Leo Cullen admitted there is confusion around how the stand-up tackle is refereed, referencing two incidents in recent weeks – Cian Healy’s red card against Ulster which was subsequently overturned, and Ulster prop Andy Warwick’s three week suspension for a tackle which initially went unpunished against Sale Sharks.
“Obviously we’ve had a red card here and it’s deemed to be probably a yellow card post-game [Cian Healy v Ulster]. Then the following week Ulster have their own scenario in a game which doesn’t get penalised, and the guy gets three weeks [Andy Warwick v Sale]. So there’s a fair bit of inconsistency at the moment for incidents that are not the exact same, because there’s probably changes of direction in both of those as well. So there’s multiple factors.
“I do think there’s ball-carriers, they know they’ve got all the aces really, haven’t they? The ball-carrier is the one in control, so if I’m ball-carrier, I can run directly at you head first and that can come into the game as well. So it’s just trying to get the right balance. A busy time for the law-makers.”
Otherwise it was a productive night for Leinster, the home side scoring seven tries in front of a bumper crowd at the RDS. Jordan Larmour stole most of the headlines with his two-try, all-action display, but Ryan Baird also impressed with another busy night in the Leinster backrow.
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