Osprey Jerry Collins cited after Munster defeat

This is a bit odd, three days after the event he is cited and for a tackle that he received a yellow card for. The yellow in itself was harsh. Dangerous enough a tackle to warrant a penalty being awarded to Munster but a yellow card was ridiculous as the tackle was only high because another player had tackled the attacking player and the attacker was falling as Collins went in.

footage below on youtube

https://youtu.be/1w61NwcrITE

As you can see Collins doesn't even complete the tackle he actually seems to shy out of it when he knows his team mate has done the job.

It wasn't a game changing situation though it would have been beneficial for the Ospreys to have had a full compliment on the pitch for the last few minutes, they may have held on to their lead, no matter how hard the ref was trying to prevent them from doing so.

"no matter how hard the ref was trying to prevent them from doing so."

*sigh*

..........

oh dear. maesteg it was definitely worthy of a yellow if not more. I'm not surprised he's been cited, I'm more surprised it's taken this long! It was a bad tackle, and there's no more to say on it really.

unbelievable !! and people saying it is worth a citing, What a joke
not even sure how it turned into a yellow let alone a citing. What game these people watching ? should of gone to spec savers lol
the man is falling to his knees when the hit went in ok a tad high and a penalty but that is as far as it should of gone,

Griz I completely agree. Jones is almos on his knees through the tackle, Collins was already committed to going in.

The ref had little empathy with the game and that was exemplified by his decision to card Collins.

I think it was certainly worthy of a yellow, because the law states it doesnt even matter if the player is slipping, he came in with a swining arm which is illeagal and highly dangerous. However i do not think that the citing was necesarry.

glad to see you agree with the citing being a joke scoty and mafiaman ;-)
nearly every tackle you see these days on the body not legs, is made with the first contact arm swinging in as it is done to dislodge the ball. looks like people are hitting with the forearm if you counted every player that done that over a single match bet nearly every player would be cited for the swinging arm
its a man's sport,, worse case penalty

maestegmafia wrote:
As you can see Collins doesn't even complete the tackle he actually seems to shy out of it when he knows his team mate has done the job.

As a tackler he is obliged to complete the tackle in a safe way, so to say he doesn't complete it doesn't help your argument. At best it was careless, but you have to stamp out dangerous play, so I would agree with the citing.

I don't really buy into this line: "it's a man's sport" to excuse dangerous behaviour. It was a swinging arm to the neck/head area - regardless of how tough you think the sport should be it is an exceptionally dangerous thing to do, Collins is lucky Jones only ended up with a bloody nose. Yellow card definitely and a citing I think is about right, this is something we need to stop happening in our game.

away with ya dreamer, its a full contact sport. it is a man's sport and i dont say that to justify dangerous play but this is being blown out of all proportion,
no way is this a citing. the tackled player starts falling to the ground at the same time as collins came in to start the tackle
no one is condoning dangerous play, so lets stay on subject and not twist it round to cover every bad tackle there has been in rugby, this is 1 tackle that does not warrant citing by any stretch of the imagination even in your dreams

ha grizly I'm not twisting it to cover every bad tackle! What this one comes down to is that Jerry Collins went in with a swinging arm, it didn't even come close to forming a tackle, therefore it's illegal. That's my opinion on it anyway

fare enough your opinion yeah, but dreamer, be honest nearly every tackle starts with the swinging arm to dislodge the ball do you agree with that?

honestly grizly...no. There is a difference between going into a tackle to dislodge the ball, and going in with a swinging arm. The approach is completely different and the arm is used differently. A tackle to dislodge the ball is fine, a swinging arm is not. Not only could you injure the player you are attempting to "tackle" but you could also injure yourself. It's dangerous and just poor technique, no place for it in rugby.

you put up a good argument .....shame its wrong

back to topic though its a matter of perception and i think it is a over reaction to cite collins for what was a high tackle in which the tackled player is dropping down so quickly,

To be honest Colins has a reputation for the swinging are/high/dangerous tackle, and he generally gets away with it, pretty much like most islanders do. I am not sure that this tackle in particular deserved a citing, a yellow card was probably fair though, and i am pretty sure that the outcome of the hearing will be in his favour.

As for the swinging arm/tackle discussion, I would agree that most tackles tend to lead with the arm swinging, in order to get a bigger thump on contact, however there is a difference between the arm contecting and the other following in the same area around the same time, and a forearm/closed hand connecting with a head/throat and the other arm grasping the back of the collar a few moments later. I guess it is a thin line, and that is an individual call for the man in the middle to make, based on the feeling of the game.

ScarletSpiderman - If it's a thin line, do you think that citings should be more common so that any decision on dangerous/careless play is cited? That way a panel who have the benefit of video analysis can make a decision. If such a firm line was taken it might help eliminate dangerous play.

Schrodinger's Cat - I personally think that certain things should go to a diciplinary pannel if there is video evidence, such as stamping and dangerous tackling. However i do thing there needs to be a bit of a ballence with it, as you can't cite every high or percieved high tackle, as lets face it, there would not be enough time to deal with them.

yeah well said spiddy, agree with both your comments.

I have to mostly agree with RD as it was a very dangerous tackle, but after recieving the yellow card i think that possibly the citing was unnecesarry. He will miss the rest of the season which is possibly a bit harsh on the ospreys.

To me Collins deserved the yellow, the Ospreys didn't.
Should he now get cited?
No!
The tackled guy was taken down by Duncan Jones with a leg tackle and as others said, falling.
Jonny wilkinson tackled JT in Wales V England he laid JT out but both the card and the citing were non-existant, the tackles were very similar. the obvious difference was that only Wilko was involved in the tackle.

Exactly my thoughts ospreylian!

Fair enough ScarletSpiderman. I suppose that is where the citing officer comes into it. If they feel something needs to be investigated more fully, they should cite it. I think that perhaps they should be a bit harsher. In the short term it might mean more work, but if it got everyone playing safely it would reduce the number of citings needed after an initial clampdown period.

ospreylian - just because Wilkinson wasn't cited for something similar doesn't mean Collins should not be cited either, although you do need consistency when offences are committed. Whether he should be cited on the merit of the incident is harder to call, but I favour investigating any dangerous or careless play.