Garces deserves praise, not abuse
The verdict will very probably be a minority one all over Ulster this morning as they blame the French referee’s red card for the Red Hand’s expulsion from Europe.
The fact of the matter is that Jared Payne left him no alternative.
Had the respective full back roles been reversed at Ravenhill on Saturday night, had it been an Irish neck hitting the ground from a height instead of an English one, the home fans would have seen red.
Having seen their No. 15 carted off, they would doubtless have come to a unanimous conclusion of approval, or to put it in Ulster patois: ‘Yer man Jerome was dead-on.’
Instead the 40-year-old from Pau in Basque country has been vilified in some quarters, accused of, among other things, “killing the game”.
He ought to be congratulated for having the courage of his convictions in a hostile environment, thereby ensuring that justice was done, as laid down under IRB law.
Alain Rolland got the same sort of abuse after sending Wales captain Sam Warburton off during the opening quarter against France at Eden Park three years ago.
Fancy doing that in a World Cup semi-final, the Welsh howled, as if the importance of the occasion justified non-enforcement of the law.
Nobody is accusing Payne of a pre-meditated act but that, too, is irrelevant.
A recent IRB conference for High Performance Senior Referees spelt it out: “Referees and citing commissioners should not make their decision based on what they consider was the intention of the offending player. Their decision should be based on an objective assessment of the overall circumstances of the tackle.” Player safety, they say, demands the highest priority and zero-tolerance. Law 10.4 (e), a dangerous tackle when an airborne player is “dropped to the ground from a height with no regard for his safety”, had to be treated as the same as Law 10.4(j), the “tip-tackle”.
What did for Payne was the fact that he never got off the ground. Ulster tried to defend him by arguing that in chasing Paddy Jackson’s Garryowen, he had his eyes on the ball all the way. A close study of the video suggests otherwise but that’s beside the point — you cannot defend the indefensible.
As for killing the game, it did nothing of the kind, thanks to the heroics of the 14 men who forced Saracens to endure 35 consecutive phases at the end when one technical infringement or one drop shot would have got Payne off the hook.
The real question Ulster supporters should be asking today has nothing to do with a French referee: After three quarter-finals and one final in the last four seasons, why do we keep falling short?
They’ve only themselves to blame for that, not ref Garces.
Fergie got out in time.
While someone else holds the baby at Old Trafford, poor old Guy is left holding the one at Toulouse amid an increasing mess.
While United and the Champions League will take some reuniting, Europe’s most successful rugby club is in danger of not qualifying for next season’s inaugural Champions’ Cup.
Sadly, they are now something they never used to be – just another losing French team on the road.
Despite Munster’s perfect home record of 21 wins from 21 matches against Top 14 teams, Toulouse went closer to conceding 50 points at Thomond Park than any other French visitor.
In showing the fallen giants the door, Munster subjected them to their worst beating in Europe for 18 years, since Wasps under Lawrence Dallaglio blitzed the defending champions 77-17 at Loftus Road.
Guy Noves was just beginning back then. The big question is whether after 21 seasons, he will be around for another.
The english premiership leaders may not have got round to giving the animals the fred astaire treatment but they have been known to let them into team meetings.
Sarries have always been different, right from the pioneering days of professionalism when nigel wray began bank-rolling their adventure.
four-legged animals dogged their progress at the very start.
Francois pienaar was not spinning a yarn when he talked the other day of having to join the rest in clearing their parks pitch at southgate in north london of dog muck before they could start training.
And if they keep baying at the moon when the stars are in the right formation, who knows?
The wolf men may end up winning the whole shebang when the oscar is up for grabs in cardiff on May 24.
Jonny Wilkinson departs within the first half hour, Brian O’Driscoll goes the full distance, then finds himself counted out of Europe for the last time.
Another final with Leinster having proved a fairytale too far for his old Lions team-mate, Wilkinson now finds another formidable Irish team standing between him and the perfect finale to his career, in Cardiff on May 24.
For Munster, semi-finals on French soil has been a cottage industry.
The one against Toulon on April 27 will be their sixth and the first in Marseilles following visits to Bordeaux (twice), Toulouse, Beziers and Lille.
Nathan Hines and Jamie Cudmore: Clermont locks have a combined age of 71.
The oldest partnership in Europe is no longer Leinster’s venerable centres. It belongs instead to Clermont’s pair of locks — Nathan Hines and Jamie Cudmore, the Canadian whose birthday today raises their combined age to 71, two more than O’Driscoll and Gordon D’Arcy.
15 Delon Armitage (Toulon)
14 Chris Ashton (Saracens)
13 Casey Laulala (Munster)
12 Wesley Fofana (Clermont)
11 Simon Zebo (Munster)
10 Brock James (Clermont)
9 Conor Murray (Munster)
1 David Kilcoyne (Munster)
2 Schalk Brits (Saracens)
3 Davit Zirakashvili (Clermont)
4 Danie Roussouw (Toulon)
5 Paul O’Connell (Munster)
6 CJ Stander (Munster)
7 Billy Vunipola (Saracens)
8 Steffon Armitage (Toulon).
