Slow motion replays - Haskell says they are unfair on players making late tackles..!

First topic message reminder :

Avidly reading the build up to this weekends trip down to Twickenham, nearly everyone publishing that James Haskell doesn't like slow motion replays, after being yellow carded from a slow motion replay of his late tackle on Connor Murray.

Haskell claims, “the slo-mo gives the wrong impression. It is not great doing that kind of stuff because it is making a spectacle out of it when it doesn’t need to be. Reviewing is a good idea but playing it on the big screen, making it a big circus, is not constructive. Any tackle looks pretty bad when seen like that, slowed right down. You see people’s heads go backwards and all that kind of stuff.”

He assures us his reaction and press statement are nothing to do with him getting a yellow card last week

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union/2016/03/07/six-nations-2016-james-haskell-calls-for-ban-on-big-screen-slow/

http://www.planetrugby.com/news/haskell-wants-big-screen-replays-banned/


http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/mar/07/james-haskell-big-screen-replays-england-ireland

http://www.espn.co.uk/rugby/story/_/id/14923209/james-haskell-calls-stadium-replays-ban-yellow-card-england-vs-ireland

http://www.skysports.com/rugby-union/news/12504/10196503/england-flanker-james-haskell-objects-to-use-of-slow-mo-replays

http://m.independent.ie/sport/rugby/six-nations/james-haskell-criticises-call-to-bin-him-for-hit-on-conor-murray-and-wants-end-to-slomo-replays-34520227.html

I don't have an issue with Ref or TMO calling the replays, although crowd reaction to the slo mo could cause a little bias.

What I don't like is the stadium showing something on the big screen (from the home nations tv crew) and the ref and TMO then getting involved from that point. I cant even remember the particulars, just remember a game at the Millenium Stadium last year where the ref suddenly looked up when the crowd got noisy, and then consulted TMO.

Cyril wrote:Nah, not a yellow. Had no bearing on the game though.

Not sure why this article headline states that Haskell thinks slow motion replays are unfair on players making late tackles. That's not what he says. Interesting how words are twisted sometimes. Interesting, but tiresome.

You are quite right. People writing misleading/factually inaccurate topic headlines should be made to re-write them or else have them edited by the moderators.

Here's an excerpt from what Haskell is quoted as saying by media:

"It was a 50-50 thing. I am 100% committed to the tackle but then pull out. If I had wanted to play to the edge, I would have gone straight through the top of him [Murray] and he really would have been in trouble, but I didn’t. I stopped, relaxed, turned my head away, there was no intent and Conor relaxed into it too and got straight back up. It looked ten times worse that it was on slo-mo.”

Some media report the tackle as high and late , others report it as simply a high tackle. As Hammer quotes above, Poite's decision is high tackle and shoulder - late doesn't come into it at all.

To be precise, Poite says to Veldsman TMO having looked at the incident:

"Two things. It's shoulder and high. Its a dangerous tackle. Yellow card, you agree?" "I agree", says Veldsman. He then speaks to Haskell and says "Two things against you. Height. And with a shoulder in front."

I do think that frame-by frame examination is useful to clarify a situation, and this incident is one of them to determine positioning of the tackling player's limb on the tackled player. In real time, it may be difficult to spot, but that doesn't mean that it didn't happen.

Haskell's revised version of events where he says he "stopped, relaxed, turned his head away, and no intent" is complete baloney if you look at the incident with any kind of objectivity. He lined himself up for a big hit on Murray, and followed it through. His mistake was in how he tackled the player, not in his timing of making it.

As to whether it was a deserved yellow card, we could be here until the cows come home. But both officials saw it as a twin offence - high and leading with the shoulder - therefore dangerous tackle, therefore yellow card.

It's pretty standard for a double offence to be a yellow. Late and high, late and shoulder, in this case high and shoulder.

The bit about Murray jumping straight back up is questionable for me too. From memory Murray stayed down for a bit.