ThinkingGame says...

@DaveJ, crunchfit, anyone else who read an Irish paper on friday

17.11 Standard of Proof

17.11.1 The Regulations relating to Standard of Proof have been prepared with

Law 6.A.4 of the Laws of the Game in mind. It is essential to preserve the

integrity of this Law and the referee¿s position as sole judge of fact and

law during the Match. Any decision by a referee during a Match cannot

be affected by a ruling of a Disciplinary Committee or a Judicial Officer.

A distinction is drawn between the referee¿s decision on the field of play

and reasons for the decision. This means that when after a Match a

Disciplinary Committee or Judicial Officer consider the further

disciplinary consequences of an incident, where the referee has already

made a decision on the field in relation to that incident, the Disciplinary

Committee or Judicial Officer may, nevertheless, enquire into the referee¿s

reasons for that decision and the circumstances surrounding it.

Kearney is lying to you. A judicial officer cannot rule whether a decision was correct in a prescriptive sense (i.e. he cannot say "That was the right call.") All they can do is examine the specific reason provided by the referee for the decision, and decide whether that was correct or not. The difference being, saying "The reason given by the referee for making that decision is not correct." does not equate to "The decision itself was incorrect."

Posted 14:55 10th February 2012

makemehappy says...

@7ton - I have never heard such rubbish! Have a chat with Craigf Quinell and he'll give you appropriate guidance.

Have a think of the duration of the potential bans for these offences, when considering how serious others think they are.

Your comments to no favours to the game of rugby. Thank god you don't set the rules. I'm shocked anyone can be so naive to think that a robust part of the body is more at risk than a very delicate one! You must have been drinking to come up with that!

Posted 13:12 10th February 2012

Ramage says...

Ok the decision has been given and it is severe. People can argue all they like but the judicial ruling given shows that it is looked on as a serious offence. I now revisit what I said in an earlier post that something has to be done by referees. So lets explore what did happen. Barnes clearly said to Pearson who flagged the offence I didn't see it what is your recommendation? Pearson's answer was yellow card. In view of the official decision that recommendation should see Pearson being severely reprimanded or maybe being replaced in the Ireland France game at this coming weekend for not suggesting a red card. He clearly saw what happened but offered Barnes a cop out decision. Now on to Barnes he saw fit to give a yellow card to Ferris at the end of the game yet no further punishment was deemed to be needed. Now if he saw a yellow card for this one if he had seen the other one then one would presume he would have awarded a red. Whatever one thinks he missed it he said so himself. Seems this is becoming a continuing trait with Mr Barnes he seems to miss a lot of important happenings in the game. Now in the Sth Hemisphere reports have not said anything about the Irish Management comments about the fact it should not have been a penalty at all. So Crunchfit can you give me any legitimate quote from a newspaper or any other report that I can read or watch to confirm your statement. Then and only then will I comment on this particular decision.

Finally just because you say so andyroo it isn't true that Paddy O'Brien is the IRB so it might be an idea not to post untruths on here.

Posted 15:44 09th February 2012

cheeky says...

Complete thuggery which has no part in the game of rugby! Is 7 weeks enough? Well it will certainly feel that way to Bradley Davies!

Posted 12:39 09th February 2012

DaveJ says...

Just read in the news there that the irb disciplinary board have admitted that it was not a penalty offence and that stephen ferris had challenged fairly. Shock horror. Say what you want but the Irish do get the short end of the stick when it comes to a lot of bad refereeing decisions. Couldn't help but think about a comment I read on here pre game with somebody stating that because barnes was referee we could expect innocent people to be penalised and sin binned, how right you were sir!

Posted 00:09 09th February 2012

DaveJ says...

Ferris was cleared, Davies gets 7 weeks. Yes Barnes, both yellow card offenses. You incompetent tool. It wasn't even a penalty. Ireland robbed by another incompetent refereeing decision? Ireland should have been better all over the park but the last minute tells a story and its hard to argue that another poor decision did cost them yet another game to Wales.

Posted 21:56 08th February 2012

makemehappy says...

@Maria14 - think you need to put the whole event into context!!!! Compared with Gouging and the actual extent of the injury, plus the on field decision suggest this is about right. You were looking at a mid range punishment for this particular crime.

@Keste03 - what utter rubbish! Have a good think - one loses and eye, and one results in a bump (who ever breaks their neck in that sort of situation).

I still have to ask why if he'd pulled him down in the lineout and he'd had the same sort of fall, would we not be talking about the incident. The game really needs to sort its act out with that issue!

Posted 18:04 08th February 2012

pog_mahone says...

Bones7 - coincidentally that's the number of bones in the human neck, which Donnacha Ryan came damn close to breaking. It's a tough enough game played legally, without that sort of deliberate thuggery. At least the review board were able to do what Barnes and his team could not, and distinguish between the 2 tackles.

Posted 17:38 08th February 2012

TVaddict says...

As a neural this seems like a pretty good amount of time. If it had been a few weeks longer then I'd be more happy, but ultimately he's missing the whole 6 nations which is ample punishment really.

Posted 16:38 08th February 2012

maria14 says...

He should have been banned for life!

Posted 15:58 08th February 2012