Sin-bins cost Reds Ref’s dubious calls and poor handling kill contest
THE Reds yesterday butchered the chance of a first win on the road since 2015 in Buenos Aires but the bigger blight was the sense Super Rugby has gone soft.
When No.8 Scott Higginbotham crashed over for Queensland’s only try at the 56-minute mark, there was sudden momentum for the visitors.
What could have been a comeback from 19 points down to rival the stirring NSW Waratahs’ rally to topple the Melbourne Rebels became a blueprint for blundering away endless chances because the score never budged further from 22-8.
The Reds even played against 14 men in that closing period when Jaguares winger Bautista Ezcurra was sinbinned for a deliberate knockdown after the ridiculous yellow card handed to Reds winger Eti Nabuli when Kiwi referee Mike Fraser imagined the same offence earlier in the game.
Where do you start on an excruciating match which seemed to stretch to two hours with the incessant involvement of the TMO, injury timeouts, one legitimate stretcher case and Fraser front and centre with a numbing scrum tutorial.
Fraser sought TMO help six times on perceived foul play, including an excellent fronton, ball-and-all tackle by Karmichael Hunt on halfback Gonzalo Bertranou just before halftime.
For more than 100 years, that moment has been play-on for a straightforward tackle because Hunt collected the ball and the player high on the chest.
You can bet Hunt never thought he was signing for touch rugby when the former Brisbane Bronco joined the Reds in 2015 but that’s what the code has become.
Sure, protect the head at all costs with World Rugby’s crackdown but penalties like that are a joke.