leinsterforever wrote:The thing about the Lowe red, and any number of incidents like it, is that the game sets people up for it to happen - even when they're trying to play the game completely legally. The 'he should have got off the ground' crowd aren't taking into account the nuances of the physics of the situation, in my view. There are exceptions, of course, but in the vast majority of these mid-air collisions, it's the chaser from the team that kicked the ball that gets in trouble. It seems to me that there's a reason for this. If the ball is flying away from you, you have to get a bit of length in your jump to collect it cleanly, whereas if you're the receiver, if you've got good timing, you can focus more on getting height in your jump and letting the ball come to you. Two players trying to play the game fairly, and one is almost set up to get penalised by the trajectory of the ball.
I don't know what the answer is, but it seems wrong that you can get red for playing the game, but only get penalized for deliberately and maliciously tackling someone in the air if they don't fall dangerously
Interesting to read the wording of the law in that light:
“The referee showed the player a red card under Law 9.17 – A player must not tackle, charge, pull, push or grasp an opponent whose feet are off the ground., "
So which one did Lowe do? He didn't tackle him, charge him, pull him, push him or grasp him. He occupied the space where he would have landed, leading to a dangerous fall. So yeah its both unlucky and dangerous, but which one does he get done for? A charge would be the closest I guess,
