IRISH REFEREE Alain Rolland’s instinctive decision to show Wales captain Sam Warburton a red card in the 18th minute of the World Cup semi-final against France was supported yesterday by the 23-year-old flanker himself.
“The IRB said if you lift up a player and drop him it’s a red card, and that’s exactly what I did,” said Warburton.
“I can’t complain. There was no point in appealing against it and I didn’t have a leg to stand on really.”
The subsequent three-week suspension, for the tip tackle on winger Vincent Clerc in a game Wales eventually lost 9-8 at Eden Park, will be completed tomorrow, allowing Warburton to return for the Cardiff Blues’ opening Heineken Cup match against Racing Metro 92 next Friday.
“I have seen it played back, the tackle is a lot uglier than I thought it was at the time,” Warburton continued.
“I didn’t intend to do anything like that and I had only had a yellow card in my career up until that point so it was a shock to get a red, but there was nothing I could do and I just had to support the boys for the rest of that match and the remaining game against Australia.”
Rolland, who was capped three times for Ireland at scrumhalf between 1990 and 1995, was heavily criticised, in particular by South Africa’s 1995 World Cup -winning captain Francois Pienaar on television at half-time of the semi-final.
“It’s wrong, it’s wrong – I’ve calmed down now,” said Pienaar.
“But I was absolutely livid. It’s wrong. It’s killed the game. It was a dangerous tackle, yes. It was a penalty, yes.
“At best, a yellow card. Never a red card in the (semi-) final. If you go through the tackle, I mean, Sam Warburton has been one of the cleanest players in this Rugby World Cup.
“He is the captain of a team that is playing fantastic rugby. He sets himself in the tackle, lifts the player but then releases the player, so yeah, it was a dangerous tackle.”
However, the IRB referees’ manager Paddy O’Brien firmly backed Rolland in the immediate aftermath of the game.
It also became apparent that an edict had come down for referees to send off a tackler if a ball carrier is lifted and then dropped, or driven, to the ground while the player’s feet are still off the ground such that the player’s head and/or upper body should come into contact with the ground first.
Despite a lack of consistency from other referees regarding tip tackles during the tournament, the Irishman was faced with a similar incident last January when Toulouse centre Florian Fritz tip-tackled Wasps winger Tom Varndell. On that occasion he also immediately showed a red card.
Rolland subsequently acted as assistant referee for the World Cup final on October 23rd when New Zealand beat France 8-7.
His general performances during the tournament saw him rewarded this week with the France versus England fixture in next year’s Six Nations.
