I can't help but draw parallels with the Andre Esterhuizen ban against Portugal. Executing a perfectly legal, dominant tackle, full wrap below the shoulders, but heads meet and suddenly you're out of here for 4 weeks.
What situation was Paisami facing? "Australia in trouble here" goes the commentator with the Boks having a clear overlap and numbers outside. Paisami does the logical, instinctive thing - he tries to wrap Sacha man and ball to prevent the pass from going. His wrap is below the shoulders, in all events a legal tackle, nothing malicious in it. But there's a contact of heads as Sacha goes into a lower posture.
This, apparently, warrants a 4 week ban in rugby.
Now, the undiscerning rugby supporter will say "oh, just tackle lower", as one dude on FB opined in response to Steve Hansen's very pointed comments about these contacts and their cards.
But it's not that simple when you also want to prevent the offload, as Hunter was trying to do. Rugby is now expecting defenders to just hand the offload advantage to the attacking side because going for the man and ball wrap exposes you to the risk of head contact.
It's silliness, completely out of whack with the nature of the game and carding it does nothing - as Hansen says in his comments, it's already happened, so what does the card help? Players will always look to stop the ball in certain situations, especially when the defense is under pressure. Card it to death if you want, you won't change the nature of the game or the purpose and importance of dominant contact, which is an integral part of the game.
In the heat of the moment you act on instinct and reflex - there's an overlap outside you, you try to stop the ball from going, that's why we see so many slapdowns despite it also being a card offense. It's a square peg/round hole situation.
Card deliberate foul play, leave the incidental contacts. The latter is a risk every player has to accept when they choose to play a fast paced contact sport. There was no malice in this tackle, no attempt to hurt the player, just an attempt to stop the pass from going.
I am in full agreement with Hansen on this. How is this helping the game? It needs an urgent rethink.
