The incident marred an in any other case encouraging 52-17 victory over Eddie Jones’ Japan that may probably drive England head coach Steve Borthwick to name up one other second row for the 2 Test matches towards New Zealand. Maro Itoje and George Martin began within the second row towards Japan with Northampton’s Alex Coles the one different specialist lock within the travelling occasion.
What was the incident?
Leading 45-17, England are attacking contained in the Japan 22 with Ben Earl making a carry. Leitch will get ready to jackal with a large stance however doesn’t assault the ball with Tom Roebuck already defending the ruck. Ewels is available in from the facet to filter Leitch, taking out his proper leg. Referee Ramos solely awards a penalty for facet entry in actual time however is shortly alerted to attainable foul play by Eric Gauzins, the French Television Match Official. They shortly determined to point out a yellow card to Ewels whereas referring the incident to the bunker the place it’s upgraded to pink, deeming that it was “dangerous” with “no mitigation”.
Was it the appropriate choice?
In actual time it appears horrific. As a lot as World Rugby has labored exhausting to mitigate the variety of concussions in matches, they’ve additionally been attempting to guard jackallers by banning crocodile rolls. Former England second row Ben Kay, an analyst for RugbyMove TV, had little doubt that the officers made the appropriate choice.
“People will watch it in slow motion and say ‘what’s he thinking?’” Kay stated. “These situations happen a lot where you have to be physical to make a clearout. The reason it is a red card is that he is out of control. He is too low, his head is below his hips. When he goes in there, he is not expecting Michael Leitch’s leg to be in that position. You have to retain an element of control. Absolutely it’s a red card. It is the right decision, we have to look after players, particularly around the breakdown.”
Screenshots present that Leitch moved his leg as Ewels got here in for the clearout making the incident look far worse. However, Ewels was all the time unlawful coming in from the facet and as Kay rightly says he was not accountable for a missile like clearout that might simply have resulted in a damaged leg for Ewels.
