The Official English Rugby Thread

[Kawazaki]

One could look at that late Saints score and simply consider it's a two man tackle that doesn't stop the ball getting offloaded, and so you'd want a word with two players wasting resources in defence, addressing that which you can control. Or you could blame the ref.

Laugh and the world laughs with you, cry and you wet your face

The double tackle did stop the ball being legally offloaded.

[Kawazaki]

Luke Pearce RIP

It was pretty clear from the discussions between Pearce and the TMO that Pearce thought it was forward and was looking to the TMO to provide him with enough evidence to overturn the on-field award of a try. But the TMO kept insisting that the pass and try was fine. When Pearce kept questioning him, the most he would say was that, after looking at all the angles, there was nothing conclusive to overturn the decision. Pearce even apologised to Itoje when explaining why he couldn't overturn the decision.

So your ire should be reserved for the TMO.

Having said that, Saracens had benefitted from forward passes earlier in the match that were missed by the ref and TMO, most notably when Daly's pass to Gonzalez travelled about 10 metres forward before Gonzalez caught it and scored, so these things even out in the end.

Daly passed the ball at least 15m out the back of his hands whilst running at full tilt. It would defy the laws of physics of it didn't travel forward relative to where it was released from.

And it was about a 3m difference, not 10m.

This explaining momentum rule is getting tiresome.

[Brazil]

It cancelled out the very obvious penalty try for a tackle in the air that Pearce weirdly talked himself out of earlier. That and giving saracens extraordinary latitude in the ruck on the line, and all of the forward passes that were missed in previous tries. Pearce had a bad day at the office all over the shop, but mercifully it all balanced out and the right team won.

[Kawazaki]

It cancelled out the very obvious penalty try for a tackle in the air that Pearce weirdly talked himself out of earlier. That and giving saracens extraordinary latitude in the ruck on the line, and all of the forward passes that were missed in previous tries. Pearce had a bad day at the office all over the shop, but mercifully it all balanced out and the right team won.

It wasn't a penalty try. Goode would still have pushed him out had he waited the 0.3 seconds for Dingwall to fall the extra 15cm. And there was literally no Saints player within 30m of Dingwall when he passed it back.