JM2K6 wrote: Sat Apr 09, 2022 7:01 amSeat belt tackles are ones from behind going over the shoulder, not when a guy dives head first for the line into and through arms which hit each shoulder. There was head contact but the tacklers did nothing wrong, had no chance to react, and were trying to tackle safely. It would have been a travesty if it were penalised - akin to allowing players to headbutt body parts to win a penalty.Tichtheid wrote: Fri Apr 08, 2022 11:03 pm That was a stone cold red card, but wasn't.
There was another couple of decisions that swung the game, Leinster destabilised a scrum on the Munster 5m line and got a penalty advantage for it, it led to a further scrum and a try.
A few minutes later a Connacht player dived for the Leinster try line and was met with two seat belt tackles, the decision was a knock on and a scrum to Leinster. That scrum was not stable and a free kick was given to Leinster, who cleared their lines accordingly.
it was a shit show.
I'm not sure that's correct, there is a refs discussion about seatbelt tackles on a forum here
In any event there was head contact and it's not a defence to say "what else is the defender supposed to do?" because that could be used for any wrongdoing, especially in the red zone where offences are penalised to a greater degree in the form of cards and penalty tries.
Any headbutt would be penalised so that comparison doesn't really work.
Rugby is notoriously difficult to referee and there is a lot of subjectivity involved, which of course the administrators are trying to lessen as much as they can, but it does lead to inconsistency and I think that is what gets everyone's backs up.
