Experts question sanctions laid down at world cup

RUGBY UNION:

Reece Hodge would have been better off trying to yank Fiji’s Peceli Yato to the ground by his hair instead of putting his own body on the line and trying to stop the oldfashioned way.

At least that’s the hidden message being told to players at a World Cup that’s in danger of being decided in the judicial rooms instead of the field.

World Rugby’s sense of justice gets wackier every day.

At the same time as Hodge was given a ridiculous threematch ban for his clumsy trysaving tackle on Yato after it was deemed to be “an act of foul play” under the sport’s new out-of-touch rules, an Argentine player got off completely after being caught pulling the hair of an opponent.

Not only that, but Pumas winger Matias Moroni was told he didn’t even have to show up at the judiciary and explain himself after being accused of hair pulling in his team’s opening loss to France.

Instead, he was issued with a Citing Commissioner Warning, which is World Rugby’s version of being hit with a feather duster, because players don’t have to answer any charges until they pick up three of them.

Former Wallaby Drew Mitchell said World Rugby’s clampdown on foul play had gone too far because the blazers setting the rules had forgotten rugby’s a contact sport so collisions and injuries are a part of it.

“We sign up to play rugby and sometimes there is going to be contact to the head. It’s just part of it and as players we accept that,” Mitchell said.

“We appreciate players’ wellbeing needs to be put first but we’re playing a contact sport that sometimes can’t be explained through black and white text and disciplinary action.”