Last minute Ireland v Italy fred

[sturginho]

Cos this will cheer me up

[Paddington Bear]

Hopefully worth watching but we’ll see

[sturginho]

Nope

[OomStruisbaai]

If they played the Springboks the whole swarm would have been here

[Paddington Bear]

Italy’s defensive set up is clearly much improved, but it looks like they could attack all day and not score

[sturginho]

[ASMO]

Game over now, Italy Red card

[Paddington Bear]

Uncontested scrums, no atmosphere, unavoidable TMO delays. This is not a spectacle

[Lobby]

Uncontested scrums, no atmosphere, unavoidable TMO delays. This is not a spectacle

Referee demanding that Italy go down to 13 now as well, which seems ridiculous.

[sockwithaticket]

Uncontested scrums, no atmosphere, unavoidable TMO delays. This is not a spectacle

Referee demanding that Italy go down to 13 now as well, which seems ridiculous.

Unfortunately, it is the law. If you are unable to field a front row that can contest scrums, you go down a man. It's fucking ludicrous.

Obviously in this instance it's compounded by one of the absentees being due to a red card, but I've seen it happen elsewhere when two front rowers in the same position are lost to injury in the same match and had to play with 14 for a spell. I appreciate that it's to discourage abuse of 'injured' players when a scrum is being pasted, but making a team play with a man down after experiencing misfortune like that is just needlessly punishing bad luck.

[Paddington Bear]

It’s shit - IIRC didn’t it get brought in after a period of farcical pisstaking?

Still, ought to be some materiality

[Margin__Walker]

I bet there will be an amendment/clarification to that law to exclude uncontested scrums caused by red cards following this.

You can't lose two players for one red card. It's absurd.

[Paddington Bear]

I wonder if a Barnes etc level ref would have unilaterally declared they could play with 14.

[Lobby]

Uncontested scrums, no atmosphere, unavoidable TMO delays. This is not a spectacle

Referee demanding that Italy go down to 13 now as well, which seems ridiculous.

Unfortunately, it is the law. If you are unable to field a front row that can contest scrums, you go down a man. It's fucking ludicrous.

Obviously in this instance it's compounded by one of the absentees being due to a red card, but I've seen it happen elsewhere when two front rowers in the same position are lost to injury in the same match and had to play with 14 for a spell. I appreciate that it's to discourage abuse of 'injured' players when a scrum is being pasted, but making a team play with a man down after experiencing misfortune like that is just needlessly punishing bad luck.

They might have to review that law after such a high profile match descending into farce like this.

[Margin__Walker]

I wonder if a Barnes etc level ref would have unilaterally declared they could play with 14.

Probably not. If Italy ended up pulling off a miracle with 14 it would cause a huge stink.

This matrix just needs to change urgently though to stop this ever happening in a big game again.

[sockwithaticket]

I bet there will be an amendment/clarification to that law to exclude uncontested scrums caused by red cards following this.

You can't lose two players for one red card. It's absurd.

Here's hoping. Even between more evenly matched teams, 13 vs 15 for an hour would be a cakewalk for the team with the numeric advantage.

Can a team voluntarily go a man down? If Ireland want to get anything meaningful out of this as far as testing players goes, they could drop to 14.

[sturginho]

Georgian ref making sure Italy get kicked out of the comp, 4D chess...

[Ovals]

Farcical rule. It's made an absolute mocker of this game.

[Lobby]

I bet there will be an amendment/clarification to that law to exclude uncontested scrums caused by red cards following this.

You can't lose two players for one red card. It's absurd.

Here's hoping. Even between more evenly matched teams, 13 vs 15 for an hour would be a cakewalk for the team with the numeric advantage.

Can a team voluntarily go a man down? If Ireland want to get anything meaningful out of this as far as testing players goes, they could drop to 14.

Ireland won’t do that. They’ll want to rack up a score just in case points difference becomes the determining factor for the Championship.

[Margin__Walker]

The more I think about it, the crazier it is. What absolute moron came up with the stipulation that it applies to reds as well?

It all makes sense for injuries and front rows getting dicked pulling a fast one on that front. For red cards? No chance, you're already down a man. No one is purposefully getting a red card to depower a scrum.

It's beyond stupid from WR.

[Raggs]

The more I think about it, the crazier it is. What absolute moron came up with the stipulation that it applies to reds as well?

It all makes sense for injuries and front rows getting dicked pulling a fast one on that front. For red cards? No chance, you're already down a man. No one is purposefully getting a red card to depower a scrum.

It's beyond stupid from WR.

If it's a red followed by an injury, then sure, but an injury followed by a red? It's a bit daft.

[Big D]

The rule is shite and the Italian player didn't need to tackle like that.

[Margin__Walker]

The more I think about it, the crazier it is. What absolute moron came up with the stipulation that it applies to reds as well?

It all makes sense for injuries and front rows getting dicked pulling a fast one on that front. For red cards? No chance, you're already down a man. No one is purposefully getting a red card to depower a scrum.

It's beyond stupid from WR.

If it's a red followed by an injury, then sure, but an injury followed by a red? It's a bit daft.

For sure. The red first wouldn't come into it at all.

It's where the red is triggering things going uncontested. I.e activating the matrix above

[Big D]

Although, there definitely should be a front row brought on and team made to pack down with 8. That bit is correct IMO.

[Raggs]

Although, there definitely should be a front row brought on and team made to pack down with 8. That bit is correct IMO.

Agree with that, no issue.

[Big D]

Although, there definitely should be a front row brought on and team made to pack down with 8. That bit is correct IMO.

Agree with that, no issue.

I suspect we'll see some push for 20min red cards after this.

[sockwithaticket]

I know there's a long way to go, but imo Italy are more than justifying their place in the tournament with this spirited resistance under extreme circumstances.

[ASMO]

Surely there are better wingers in Ireland than Lowe, he is the very definition of ordinary.

[sockwithaticket]

Italy finishing the game with 12!

[ASMO]

Down to 12 now, farcical.

[Lobby]

Ireland have scored more than 50 against Italy in their last three Six Nations games, so the fact they haven’t done any better than that against 13 (and now 12) men is a tribute to how much Italy have fought in this match.

[Paddington Bear]

Fair play Italy, horrendous circumstances

[Mahoney]

Why did Italy have to restart after Ireland were held up in goal? Couldn’t that have been the end of the match?

[ASMO]

Why did Italy have to restart after Ireland were held up in goal? Couldn’t that have been the end of the match?

Time wasn't up

[Lobby]

Why did Italy have to restart after Ireland were held up in goal? Couldn’t that have been the end of the match?

I think the ref said there were still 8 seconds left when play was stopped. A more sympathetic ref would have simply blown for time, given the result wasn’t in doubt.

[Slick]

The more I think about it, the crazier it is. What absolute moron came up with the stipulation that it applies to reds as well?

It all makes sense for injuries and front rows getting dicked pulling a fast one on that front. For red cards? No chance, you're already down a man. No one is purposefully getting a red card to depower a scrum.

It's beyond stupid from WR.

As usual in any walk of life some people/teams take the piss and so ridiculous laws are needed.

Anyway, well done Italy, particularly the skipper, but as someone else said this may actually perversely stop some of the chucking out chat

Also, well done the ref, huge day for him and Georgian rugby and he did as well as he couple with all that thrown at him

[fishfoodie]

Bad luck Italy, you got the shitty end of the law book; but the players played their guts out, & that's all you can ask of them.

Forza Italia !

[sturginho]

[Ovals]

Good effort from Italy - pretty ordinary from Ireland but I guess they lost their intensity when the contest effectively ended well before HT.

[Margin__Walker]

The more I think about it, the crazier it is. What absolute moron came up with the stipulation that it applies to reds as well?

It all makes sense for injuries and front rows getting dicked pulling a fast one on that front. For red cards? No chance, you're already down a man. No one is purposefully getting a red card to depower a scrum.

It's beyond stupid from WR.

As usual in any walk of life some people/teams take the piss and so ridiculous laws are needed.

Anyway, well done Italy, particularly the skipper, but as someone else said this may actually perversely stop some of the chucking out chat

Also, well done the ref, huge day for him and Georgian rugby and he did as well as he couple with all that thrown at him

When has a team ever deliberately conceded a red card to depower a scrum?

It's just not a thing.