Owens’ Thomas red call

NIGEL Owens has called on World Rugby to take action after Welsh prop Gareth Thomas avoided a red card in the win over Australia on Saturday.

Thomas was sent to the sin bin when he made contact with the head of a prone Wallaby near a breakdown.

It was a strange decision from the Welsh replacement to try and clear out his opponent, who was not near the ball, and it became dangerous when contact was made with the head.

Earlier in the match, Rob Valetini was shown a straight red card for head-on-head contact with Adam Beard that put the Welsh lock out of the game.

Owens agreed with the call to red card the Aussie No.8 but felt Thomas should have faced a similar fate.

Writing in his column for the Telegraph, Owens said: “I thought Wales were very lucky that Gareth Thomas, the replacement prop, did not get sent off as well for his clear-out. It looked the same as Peter O’Mahony’s red card against Wales in the Six

Nations last season, albeit perhaps with less force.

“Let’s compare the two incidents. Valetini’s was accidental, but the red card was correct. Thomas’ foul play was obviously intentional. He dived on a prone player nowhere near the ball, which is an offence in itself, and swung his arm into an opponent’s head.

“I can agree with a yellow card that Mike Adamson gave here because the degree of force was not particularly high. However, it was totally avoidable. For that reason, I would have gone with red.

“How can it be right to give a yellow for something deliberate and a red for a total accident? We need to look at this because something is not right and it is a real issue in the game.”

When Thomas was off the field, Wales’ lead shrunk from 10 points to six. They did then fall behind when they were back up to a full compliment but Rhys Priestland held his nerve to win it with the last kick of the match.