hugonaut wrote:I hope they throw the book at Papé – 6 month ban wouldn't be too much for him.
It was a complete cheap shot, with no provocation, resulting in – and always likely to result in – a serious injury. This from a player who has accumulated 30 cards [28 yellow, 2 red] in his career [source: http://itsrugby.fr/joueur-102.html ].
no idea his record was that bad, but citing panels especially ERC ones, very poor at taking previous records in to case
eg Cudmore still playing
hopefully 6n panel will be stricter
crucial aspect of ruling will be whether they view it as reckless or deliberate, to me definitely the latter
interesting Barnes can send someone off for swearing at him but spear tackles and striking opponents are yellow cards
It used to be that a player could have his ban reduced because of his behaviour at the hearing but today we have entered into a new, and very sad, era. Pape had his sentence reduced by one third because he apologised on twitter!!!
So from now on every citing will be followed by an apology on twitter which will not only guarantee a reduction in sentence but also has the secondary advantage of 'forcing' the injured player into accepting the apology for fear of being seen as a bad sport.
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I'm a Book Mark and damn proud of it. Storm 1:08 forever
I think Pape has got away with murder here. Being contrite is cr@p if you ask me. If Heaslip's vertebrae had been broken a little more centrally on his spine who knows he may never have played Rugby (or walked) again. Saying sorry is the least you should expect from a player, not something that earns him a reduction in his ban. His record is not exactly squeaky clean.
People are saying on other threads that the rules of the game need to be looked at. I think foul play is something that seriously needs to be looked at. I know the game is attritional; and I accept you don't want it to become sanitised and there will always be the risk of serious injury given it's physical nature. Its one thing for a player to suffer a debilitating injury through an unfortunate accident during the game; but it is quite another for players to be at risk because of deliberate acts by opposition players. This absolutely has to stop. David Atoub was banned a few years back for a year if I recall correctly. That sent a message. Ten weeks for Pape means he will do the same thing again next season and it won't make a blind bit of difference. No message sent. Or more correctly the message sent is that if you apologise for breaking an opponent's back you will get over a month off your ban.
And for the record I believe the suspension Heaslip got for kneeing McCaw was ridiculously light also.
The difficulty rests in handing out long bans for what might have been accidental acts; and we just have to trust disciplinary tribunals on that. My own preference for what it is worth is that you always should err on the side of penalising the aggressor, whether potentially accidental or not. The game needs to be one where people feel safe(ish) playing it.
They must have seriously looked at his past record, seems excessive, personally think it should have been more but if they are comparing it to similar incidents then it is excessive, heaslip got only 5 weeks for kneeing mccaw in the head 3 times, even if he had a clean record you would be jailed if that was on the street, any use of the knee should have a mandatory 1 year ban, clear intent needed of course.
