McFarland bristles after red card ends Leinster ‘contest’
ULSTER LEINSTER Brendan Fanning 19 38
WHEN coaches are struggling to keep a lid on their emotions, knowing that lifting the lid will probably lead to a sanction of some sort, they buy a ticket for Planet Theoretical. At least that’s Dan McFarland’s strategy.
Consider his pain post-match in the Kingspan: Ulster needed to put a halt to Leinster’s gallop to keep alive any chance of meeting Munster in the Guinness PRO14 final. They had been 12-3 ahead and playing with tempo. True, there were worrying signs flashing over the scrum, and they had already called Eric O’Sullivan ashore in circumstances that were unclear, but it was game-on and Leinster were struggling to keep 15 men on the field.
When Ulster climbed into the same boat things changed. So, Devin Toner and Jimmy O’Brien on yellows for Leinster was an inconvenience. O’Sullivan’s replacement, Andrew Warwick, on a red was a gamechanger.
Safety
Discussing the nature of that change is what drove the Ulster coach towards the safety of the theoretical over the actual. Well, we’ll see. Either way it will be an interesting chat when McFarland catches up with PRO14 referees’ manager Greg Garner.
It’s likely those who thought Warwick’s fend, with his elbow, to the neck of Ed Byrne was a red card offence, but after TMO Olly Hodges got involved in the conversation with referee Frank Murphy that’s what he got.
“I’m going to talk in the theoretical,” McFarland confirmed. “A forearm that arrives in the sort of neck area with no force versus a high tackle with no drop in height where the head hits somebody else in the face, I would say there’s not really many people who would argue that the first
one was dangerous, let alone more dangerous. That in a theoretical sense would be pretty obvious. How it translates into the decision-making process, which I’m told is a very difficult process to go through, is a different matter.”
It’s safe to say, we think, in theory, McFarland was contrasting the yellow for O’Brien for his hit on Ian Madigan with Warwick’s red. O’Brien’s timing was spot-on, but not dropping his height meant a full-on facial for the Ulster out-half. Hence McFarland’s issue. Then the coach was encouraged to talk about the decision to rule out a try for the excellent Robert Balacoune in the second half, by which stage Ulster were trailing 24-12.
“Was that blocking, was it not? Frank (Murphy) didn’t see that – or sorry, didn’t want to look at it. The Balacoune (non) try in my opinion is just an out and out try. That’s not blocking. In my opinion. I could be wrong. The six steps in to make the tackle – and it’s just a really terrible read. So how is that blocking?”
It’s blocking if the player is not a credible receiver of the pass and prevents a tackle on someone who is. Evidently that’s how the officials saw it. By then Ulster were battling – and to their credit they spared nothing – a lost cause.
“To me there was no game,” McFarland said of the changed state of affairs. “After those situations that ended in red cards and yellow cards for us and tries for them and no-tries for us there is no ‘game’.
“It doesn’t appear like a contest because everything is framed in the situation, the context of what’s happened. So the only way I can look at it is to say that in the little bits that I saw after that they (Leinster) were very impressive.”
Yes, they were. And it’s worth noting this was largely Leinster’s second string. As ever it’s this back-up crew who draw attention for their ability to get the job done. Two players who illustrated this perfectly were Scott Penny, now earning his corn in the middle of the back-row instead of on its openside, and Josh Murphy who came off the bench for Josh van der Flier. Murphy is a serious proposition to introduce. We’ll be seeing more of him.
ULSTER – M Lowry; R Baloucoune, J Hume (S Moore 61), S McCloskey (yc 28-38), J Stockdale; I Madigan (R Lyttle 50), J Cooney (A Mathewson 71); E O’Sullivan (A Warwick 27, rc 31), J Andrew (A McBurney ht), T O’Toole (M Moore 62); A O’Connor, K Treadwell (C Izuchukwu 50) N Timoney, J Murphy (capt) (S Reidy 51), M Coetzee (E O’Sullivan 31).
LEINSTER – M O’Reilly; C Kelleher, J O’Brien (yc 15-25; J Osborne 74), R O’Loughlin, D Kearney; R Byrne, L McGrath (capt) (R Osborne 76), E Byrne (P Dooley 58), J Tracy (D Sheehan 58), M Bent (T Clarkson 58), D Toner (yc 7-17; J Dunne 74), S Fardy (R Molony 64), R Ruddock (yc 71), J van der Flier (J Murphy 38), S Penny.
Frank Murphy (IRFU).