Kidney fears TV’s impact as Irish duo get marching orders
LONDON IRISH 14 STORMERS 28
LONDON IRISH boss Declan Kidney is worried that ‘trial by TV’ is affecting the game after two of his players were sent off. The Heineken Champions Cup saw its fourth and fifth red cards of the weekend when Ben Loader (below) walked for a dangerous tackle before Ciaran Parker followed him for an illegal clear-out. Stormers capitalised to claim a bonus-point win that puts them on the cusp of the knockouts, while Irish were eliminated with a game to play.
Kidney turned his attention on pundits, fearing their opinions might be influencing the disciplinary process. ‘TV is a hugely-important aspect of the whole sport, but it’s the balancing act of having the decisions made before the process takes place during the week,’ Kidney said. ‘There was a time before the TMO came into it that you had to make instinctive decisions over foul play and what was a collision.
‘Is the game safer now as a result? It probably is. But on one ne hand we are asking TMOs not to intercede e and speed the game up but on the other, once you break something down second by second, then the way it looks can be different. ‘Things are happening g which aren’t being reviewed eviewed and then others are microscopic and get a huge amount of air time. Is that right?
‘One could argue yes, but one could also argue that if everything is microscopically looked at, we would be here all day.’ Stormers head coach John Dobson revealed his South Africa fly-half Manie Libbok would be out for ‘a little while’ after suffering a significant head injury during Loader’s tackle. However, he viewed Parker’s charge into Deon Fourie as the graver offence.
‘There’s no way Ben Loader comes in trying to decapitate Manie,’ he said. ‘It’s a tough situation — play was moving fast, it was a two on one, there was a try at risk. We don’t view it as any form of malice. ‘I would differentiate slightly between Loader’s tackle. That’s where you have got to protect because guys are really exposed.’