Rugby videos of tackles, tries, funny incidents and more: Morne Steyn red carded for a spear tackle

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Morne Steyn red carded for a spear tackle

The Bulls vs The Sharks last weekend in the Currie Cup met for a Super 14 finalists rematch. The Sharks scored two tries in each half for their bonus point in a match of great excitement for the 27 000 spectators.

The game was effectively spoilt in the second half for a short period with the instant red card given to Bulls flyhalf Morne Steyn by referee Mark Lawrence for a spear tackle on flanker Jacques Botes.

The IRB clearly is attempting to stamp out on any form of the spear tackle. In my opinion, very harsh, and I'm a Sharks supporter.

Labels: Spear tackle

harsh red, yellow for sure. I dont like that the ref and linesman didnt know what it was worth and just went with red. If its borderline go with yellow as reds ruin games

Simon

By Anonymous, at July 31, 2007 7:05 pm
It was a blatant spear tackle, it looked like he meant to do it. But yeah, worth a yellow I think, there wasn't much left of the game.

By Anonymous, at July 31, 2007 7:11 pm
harsh referees kill the game!

By Anonymous, at July 31, 2007 7:22 pm
Nope 100% red. If the rules are no spear tackling or its a red card then that's whats got to happen to any player

By Anonymous, at July 31, 2007 7:45 pm
tbh, everyone heard the ref, he said they are trying to stamp it out, now players will think twice!

By Anonymous, at August 01, 2007 12:12 am
Red Cards are the only way to stop that nasty Spear Tackles

By Anonymous, at August 01, 2007 2:47 am
This comment has been removed by the author.

By Unknown, at August 01, 2007 3:18 pm
He will be lucky if he only gets away with a red. It was a blatant spear tackle and he has to walk for it.
The ref didn't kill the game,Steyn did

By Anonymous, at August 01, 2007 3:19 pm
Rugby is rugby, dont be playing it if you cant take the heat...

By Anonymous, at August 01, 2007 4:16 pm
And spear tackles are illegal in rugby, just as a high tackle is, just as a stamp on the face is, so what your saying about "Rugby is rugby, dont be playing it if you cant take the heat..." is a dumbass comment!!! if its illegal in the rules then it isnt rugby so therefore red card was a good answer to a tackle which is a potential neck breaker!

By Anonymous, at August 01, 2007 5:00 pm
I think it was unfair a bit because Morne Steyn did apologise immediately after the incident however we need to stamp out spear tackles from the game for good. Players need to know that if they are going to spear players they will be sent off.

By Anonymous, at August 01, 2007 10:37 pm
Spear tackles are no good for rugby, they will scare people away...
Red card all the way, there are better ways of tackling violently without putting neck bones in danger...

By Anonymous, at August 01, 2007 11:12 pm
should have been a yellow - that is enough punishment and it does cost teams vicotories - which stops players from doing it. Red cards end games from a contest perspective.

By Anonymous, at August 01, 2007 11:51 pm
Have you noticed how all tackles like that the recipient always graps their head and act injured. 10 years ago he would have been up instantly a bit soccerish for my liking.

By Anonymous, at August 02, 2007 1:08 am
"Have you noticed how all tackles like that the recipient always graps their head and act injured. 10 years ago he would have been up instantly a bit soccerish for my liking."

Ha! Or perhaps the fact that he had just been dumped on his neck.

Spear tackles are unnecessary and dangerous. Definitely a red card.

By Anonymous, at August 02, 2007 1:35 pm
If the refs are clamping down on spear tackles (quite rightly) then you have to accept that a tackle like this- that is not the worst of its kind- will be dealt with severely. if this has to be done to make sure the ridiculous spear tackles get stamped out then we have to accept that this is in the interests of the game! not the worst tackle in the world but still fairly bad and deserves the red. However if this is going to be the route of the refferees we need to see it acted out consistently throughout the game!!

we will have to wait and see if this is the case!

By Anonymous, at August 02, 2007 2:07 pm
I'm sorry that wasn't harsh. He drove the player into the ground. Rugby is a contact sport i realise that but lets not get stupid. Had the player broken his neck which could easily happen with tackles like that then it would not have seemed harsh. It was the tackle that ruined the game which lead to the red card, not the refs decision. Unfortunatly it is going to take a serious injury in a high profile game to change peoples opinions on this area of the sport.

By Anonymous, at August 02, 2007 2:18 pm
Come on, that's a copy-book tackle; get low, grab the legs, then push !!
I reckon that's not a technical foul as a late tackle or a high tackle.
What was he supposed to do. The guy come straight at him, he gets low and tackles !

By Anonymous, at August 02, 2007 3:09 pm
If that was a "copy-book tackle" then why doesn't everyone takle like that?
Don't be ridiculous. He knew what he was doing and purposely dumped the guy on his head.
If red cards kill games then don't do anything that will get you sent off. Simple. You have to do something pretty bad to get sent off in rugby anyway and nearly breaking a guys neck is one of them.

By Anonymous, at August 02, 2007 3:33 pm
Red cards don't spoil a game - spear tackling does. You can change a persons life in an instant with that one act. It needs to be completely wiped out from the game.

By Anonymous, at August 02, 2007 6:49 pm
The red was the right call.

The trend in rugby is that if you put a player into a vulnerable position, YOU are responsible for their safety.

Particularly at the higher levels, players are expected to be IN CONTROL of your body actions. Perhaps a similar parallel is that at high levels, a reckless knock-on ("reckless" meaning you have a very low chance of making a legal play on the ball)is considered intentional at a high-level.

By Anonymous, at August 02, 2007 10:26 pm
The commentators say how lucky the player was to put his arm out to cushion the fall.

These spear tackles either way are very dangerous. I imagine that a player putting his arm to cushion runs a huge risk of a shoulder, elbow, wrist, or arm injury. While anything is better than a broken neck, a dislocated elbow can also end a career!

¿Has anyone come across an arm injury caused when a player tried to avoid being speared?

By Anonymous, at August 02, 2007 10:31 pm
I think that people only use spear thackles to scare people from that mach, but they dont realise that it scares people from the sport. There are better, more affective ways of making youre mark on the feild, but at the same time encouraging people to start playing rugby. I think it is a shame that as someone has already said "it will take a serious injury in a high class mach to change peoples opinions." I think spear tackles LOOL kool but normal legal dump tackles look and are way kooler

By Anonymous, at August 03, 2007 2:13 pm
that one incident looked accidental by the way steyn reacted afterwards, but in any other situation spear tackles should be a red card offence, it ruins the image of rugby if players necks can be broken by dirty play

By Anonymous, at August 03, 2007 6:40 pm
I don't know why people are saying red cards cost games, of course they do, thats what they are designed to disadvantage teams!!! whats the alternative, get a telling off for the ref.... it was a straight red, the ref gave a reason why it was a red, so stop complaining about it, at the end of the day if the guy had his neck broken all you assholes would be slagging Styne off and saying he should be banned for life etc!!!

By Anonymous, at August 03, 2007 8:29 pm
That was OTT. Yellow was all that was needed there.It wasn't even *that* bad.

By Anonymous, at August 03, 2007 8:42 pm
he took it like a man, the card that is. respect, didnt give the ref grief...

By Anonymous, at August 04, 2007 10:03 am
100% red to me
are the only way to stop that nasty Spear Tackles

By Anonymous, at August 05, 2007 10:31 pm
um well new opinion....sorry! i think the ref was just making an example, it wasnt the worse spear tackle i've ever seen and so unfortunately for styne it was a harsh red card, buuuut it was a spear tackle none the less and so i think the ref made the right decision! even if it was a harsh one!

By Anonymous, at August 07, 2007 6:12 pm
i dont think anyone can argue about weatherhe deserved to get carded for that tackle. But im sure alot of you have seen gregans tackle on kahui? to me that looked so much worse than steyns tackle but gregan only got a yellow. i think the refs need to be consistent because as was said before, a red card is a huge disadvantage to a team

By Anonymous, at August 09, 2007 12:18 pm
I believe it's a red. So, nice refereeing there.

It's a red because he intentionally spear-tackled the bloke, when he could've just "normal" tackled him. Besides, due to closeness of the try line, the close score with 20 minutes to go, the ref was trying to penalise the Bulls accordingly. The Bulls could still turn the game around but that dangerous tackle prevented a try that would put it out of reach and that's obviously foul play.

No discussion here.

By Anonymous, at October 22, 2007 12:28 am
hips above the neck, downward pressure = spear

in high pressure defence thought the defender is always looking to take the attacker off his feet and drive him back, but it has to be more controlled than that

By Anonymous, at April 04, 2008 11:52 am