First of all let me be clear that I think Bradley is fully deserving of his ban for a shocking tackle, and deserved at least the 7 weeks he got, probably more. This article is in NO way a defence of him.
What HAS shocked me though is the Ferris tackle not getting a ban. Now I have seen a number of Irish people claiming it wasn’t even a penalty, which we will address in a moment. At first glance I thought this a penalty, and probably a yellow, but no more. I no think myself wrong.
Penalty
First let’s take a look at the video. You want 1.10 onwards for one angle, 1.20 onwards for another.
So what do we see there? First us let us consider the check list to see if it is a penalty or not
1) Are both feet lifted from the floor in the tackle? Yes
2) Are the hips higher than the shoulders? Yes
3) Does the upper body hit the ground first? Yes
So there we have it, a clear tip tackle, which is a penalty, and a yellow card in 99% of instances.
Ban
That covers why I think it is a penalty. So why then do I consider it a ban? Watch it again. At no point does Ferris appear to have any concern for the safety of Evans, quite the opposite in fact.
Ferris makes no effort to get Evans horizontal. In fact he twists his own body to try his best to slam him down with his full might, using both Evans’ and his own strength. There are two reasons Evans manages to get horizontal
1) He gets his arm out to break his descent
2) Faletau half catches him to reduce the speed
Watch one more time. Specifically watch from 1.20 onwards. Evans is going directly at the ground face first, with Ferris putting his whole body into ensuring this happens. Only at the last moment does Evans get his arm out to alter his own trajectory and allow himself to land safely.
What about that suggests he should not be banned? Talk about this, and anything else you can think of, on our Welsh Rugby Forum
Loading ...
Nope sorry – I am a neutral in this as I support neither team. Davies deserved a 4 week ban & a RED card (not 7 weeks – that’s just ridiculous and sets a pathetic precedent). However – Ferris was a non-tackle. Not dangerous, no potential of harm – wasn’t even a penalty. Play on …. as refs say. Well the good ones anyway.
Barnes was trying to even up the game and this lead to a Wales win in my opinion. I don;t think there was any intention of bias from Barnes – but he is consistently a twatish referee who makes poor decisions. This was another one of them.
Ferris has no potential for harm. If Evans didnt put his own arm out to break the fall what would happen? He would be flying face first into the mud at pace – with his whole body coming behind him, through his spine.
That this didnt happen has nothing to do with Ferris, who was trying his best to make it happen, but thanks to a last second movement by the tackled player. Player safety is in the tacklers purview, not the tackled player
Sorry mate, good balanced article, but it was never a ban situation. I’m English with a welsh father, and consider myself neutral on this one. Not a yellow and not a penalty.
There was going to be a pen for something, the ref was looking for one, and I think on balance, the right team won, but it wasn’t anything which deserved a ban.
How can it not be a penalty if it meets every single criteria for a tip tackle? That really confuses me.
Also I question how it can not be considered dangerous. If evans chose not to put his arm out and he landed head first, could we then consider it dangerous? That being the case why does Evans’ actions have any influence on what Ferris did?
“1) Are both feet lifted from the floor in the tackle? Yes”
They clearly aren’t. One leg is lifted, the unlifted leg momentarily leaves the ground as the tackled player loses his balance.
This article isn’t controversial, it’s just factually wrong.
Think again. The leg is lifted as part of the entire body being lifted off the floor, turned upright and pushed downwards. Yes it is as a natural part of the tackle, but it is because of the lifting of the player in the tackle that the leg is lifted – so the leg is in fact lifted off the floor.
In a normal tackle there is no direct movement of the hips to above the shoulders to produce that sort of movement off the floor.
Otherwise every tip tackler could just argue – “I lifted his his/legs – not his feet so I didn’t break the rules”, and there would be no such thing as a tip tackle.
Sorry, Nick I can’t agree with you at all on this. You’ve got the benefit of slow motion replays on two different camera angles. Barnes didn’t have that. The moment when both of Ian Evans’ feet are off the floor is a split second. His own arm breaks his fall. The tackle movement was more lateral than vertical. Technically you can argue it was a tip tackle (of the milder variety) but it is unreasonable to expect any referee to be able to discern this in the blink of an eye. The penalty was absolutely right because the tackle was dangerous (lifted off the ground and dumped), which is what Barnes saw. The yellow was harsh, but didn’t matter anyway. But in any event, I believe I am right in saying that ANY tackle deemed dangerous, rightly or wrongly, automatically gets yellow. Red would have been ridiculous.
Gents, I do not condone tip tackles but where is the parity – I am not saying that the SF tackle was anywhere near as serious as the BD one but in the ruling BD was awarded “more time” as a deterant against such behaviour and yet the SF citing was not even upheld but by the letter of the law and definition it was clearly a tip tackle. Sends out the wrong message!
Ferris has both arms around Evans’ thigh, lifts him, and drops him. That’s not “interpretation” – it’s what the video unequivocally shows. It’s clearly dangerous, a definite penalty, and a borderline yellow card. Indeed, by the same wrong-headed “letter of the law” that did for Warburton, it could (ridiculously) have been red.
What is not clear is that Ferris had any intent to hurt Evans. IMO it’s just a clumsily over-zealous tackle and the on-field sanction was sufficient. What Davies did wasn’t a tackle at all – he upended Ryan deliberately, AFTER the tackle. That’s outright assault, and in my view he’s been treated leniently.
Officials are now saying that “intent” is irrelevant, which is a ludicrous position when they are in the business of dispensing justice. Intent is *crucial*, and they can’t simply ignore it because it’s difficult to judge.. The fact that Ryan had just performed a cynical cheap-shot on Adam Jones should not mitigate in Davies’ favour, but that Ryan wasn’t cited at all – for an offence far worse than Ferris’ – is outrageous.
In short: Ferris made a clumsy mistake, and was dealt with fairly; Davies acted with malice aforethough, is guilty of “conduct unbecoming” and got off lightly; and Ryan acted with craven thuggery yet escaped both natural and official justice.
“1) Are both feet lifted from the floor in the tackle? Yes”
I’m really not sure how you can say that! He clearly lifts one leg. I’m not sure this can even be defined as a tip tackle.
I’m definitely not neutral, but then again neither is the poster so I guess I’m ok!
Personally, I’d rather make my argument based on the actual wording of the infamous “Paddy O’Brien memo” than your “1,2,3″ questionnaire in this post.
“the possible scenarios when a tackler horizontally lifts a player off the ground:
* The player is lifted and then forced or “speared” into the ground. A red card should be issued for this type of tackle.
* The lifted player is dropped to the ground from a height with no regard to the player’s safety. A red card should be issued for this type of tackle.
* For all other types of dangerous lifting tackles, it may be considered a penalty or yellow card is sufficient.”
Now…in your argument, you “prove” Ferris deserved yellow. THEN you go on to say he should have been banned. Surely the ban should only be imposed if he deserved red? If the tackle was so bad that he should sit out full matches then surely a mere 10-minute sit-down during the match where the tackle took place isn’t enough?
And if he did deserve red, going by the above guidelines, then we’d have to go back to both 1:10 & 1:20 on your YouTube clip and find evidence that Evans was (a) forced, (b) speared or (c) dropped to the ground from a height with no regard to his safety.
You seem to suggest what happened might be (c) but even if that was the case, the ruling should be red.
I’d argue it doesn’t qualify because there’s at very least some grey area over how Evans gets to the ground. He has time to put BOTH arms out to break his fall AND retain control of the ball, hardly the action of someone who has been dropped from a height!
If I were to argue anything from the Ferris ruling, it would be its assertion that it wasn’t a penalty at all. There was enough grounds to call it a “dangerous lifting tackle” and say the yellow card was sufficient punishment in my view.
Good comments…don’t agree but they are well thought out enough that I need time to reply which I don’t have right now. will come back to this after work!
Selective quoting from the law there I’m afraid. Yes you are correct re the lifting and the landing, but the law goes on to say:
- The player is lifted and then forced or ‘speared’ into the ground (red card offence)
He wasn’t forced into the ground.
- The lifted player is dropped to the ground from a height with no regard to the player’s safety (red card offence)
He wasn’t dropped from a height.
- For all other types of dangerous lifting tackles a yellow card or penalty may be considered sufficient
This last point is the important one. If he wasn’t driven into the ground or dropped from a height then a yellow and a penalty is the right call.
While the citing commission said it wasn’t even a penalty I think it probably was but only a yellow card offence due to the above.
I disagree, he was forced into the ground. Quite convincingly actually – Ferris even twists his body so he can get better purchase in which to shove both himself and Evans down.
Obviously that is my take on it. Never have trusted these citing commissions to get it right, seems I disagree with them (on topics I am neutral on, as well as ones like this) far more often than I agree.
I’d have to disagree. Fez lifted his leg, leading to the other leaving the ground. But he didn’t push him down at any point. The first angle shows it most clearly. You can see Fez lifting the leg and then releasing him once Evans’ hand/arm hits the ground. Evans fell onto his upper body due to Ferris lifting his leg, but wasn’t driven into the ground.
Hence why I reckon it was a yellow and a penalty….as much as many of my fellow countrymen would disagree even with that!