Rugby videos of tackles, tries, funny incidents and more: Spears & Dumps galore

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Spears & Dumps galore - Falcons vs Western Province

Western Province have once again fallen at the hands of a so called ‘minnow’ of South Africa’s Currie Cup, this time losing 38-32 in nice try thriller in Brakpan on the weekend. The Gauteng Falcons claimed the scalp of the boys from Cape Town to record a famous victory for a small union who were very much the underdogs in this one.

Province were looking for an improved performance after their loss to Griquas last weekend, but once again disappointed as the game went to the side who showed the greater heart on the night.

The Falcons, commonly known as the Valke, have impressed many with their exciting brand of rugby so far this season. The expansive aspect of the game was matched by the physical though, as we saw hits flying in from all angles.

The game produced two yellow cards and one red, all of which are possibly up for discussion.

The first yellow went to Ross Skeate, who last week was on the receiving end of a few crunching hits himself. Skeate’s tackle this week was a bit of a Brad Thorn, picking up and tossing the player to ground rather than spearing or bringing him back down safely.

Next we saw a red card for Johan Swartz, the Valke winger who picked up little Gio Aplon and flipped him around before slamming him into the ground. The tackle was possibly based on momentum, and was similar to Paul Emerick’s tackle on Olly Barkley in the World Cup last year. Swartz got his marching orders, and Aplon, despite looking badly injured at once stage, got up and carried on showing no signs of bodily harm.

Once the standard had been set, referee Marius Jonker, along with his touch judges, made a point of being consistent, so when young Francois Louw made a tackle that closely resembled a spear, he promptly got his marching orders and spent ten minutes in the cooler himself.

So in summary, 70 points, two yellows, one red, and a whole bunch of big hits and running footy on display. Just a regular night of Currie Cup rugby really.

Over to you:
What are your thoughts on the tackles that were carded? It’s a nice example for us to examine and compare three supposed spear/dangerous tackles from the same game with the same ref. Were all of them dealt with accurately, or did you think that the Valke were hard done by with their red, when Western Province only got yellows?

:: Related Posts ::
Ross Skeate smashed twice by Heinrich Stride

Time: 04:35

well handled by the ref to know what to give out and when, does anyone find that touch judges are always the first to recommend a card, why are they so harsh?

By Anonymous, at July 23, 2008 11:19 pm
Nice vid! Man what a game. Loved every minute of it. That hard, flat surface seems to bring out amazing running rugby and even better hits. Brilliant.

Refs - possibly a little harsh overall, but hey, the standard has been set worldwide I guess. 10 years ago, probably only the Swartz tackle would have been picked out.

By Anonymous, at July 23, 2008 11:26 pm
wowo wota physical game :D
nice vid cheers RD

By Anonymous, at July 23, 2008 11:31 pm
how on earth did chavanga pick anyone up from the ground.. he's so fragile himself

By Anonymous, at July 23, 2008 11:32 pm
lol the last one isnt malicious, the second wasnt a spear, so why the red?

By Anonymous, at July 23, 2008 11:39 pm
more of these red card vids would be nice :)

it was handled by the referee tremendously

By Anonymous, at July 23, 2008 11:39 pm
I guess the reff was OK, all of them were dangerous.. specially the one of the red card.

BTW I enjoy the editing with the music and all.

By Anonymous, at July 23, 2008 11:43 pm
first tackle was a yellow definitely. second waas a red definitely - he deliberately took the player beyond horizontal to vertical when he could have controlled it much better. i don;t buy the momentum excuse there. third one was fine. i'd be devastated if i got carded for that one!

By Anonymous, at July 24, 2008 12:45 am
in my opinion the last tackle didnt deserve a card, but the decisions for the other 2 were spot on. looked like a really physical game!

By Anonymous, at July 24, 2008 1:18 am
Why isn't there any grass on the pitch?

By Anonymous, at July 24, 2008 1:59 am
Ref did very well. First yellow was deserved as was the red. The last yellow was a bit harsh but he had already stated his intent during the game about spear tackles. Shit song tho.

By Anonymous, at July 24, 2008 2:25 am
First Yellow to Province was correct.
The red to the Falcons should have been a red. There was never any intent there.
And the Second Yellow shouldn't have exhisted!! It was a perfectly legal tackle!

By Anonymous, at July 24, 2008 2:46 am
Ref did very well in that game. The first was spot on, the second was brutal - the red fully deserved on that tackle. To spear and then drive your own body into the player after getting them vertical is inexcusable.

The third was the only one I'm not 100% in agreement with, though to control the players in the way he did, full credit to the referee.

By Anonymous, at July 24, 2008 2:48 am
I like that rugby refs control the game a lot better then football refs. He took no whining for the last player to be sent off.

By Hendrick, at July 24, 2008 3:34 am
Agree with ref fully on all three counts.
First two were clear cut, third perhaps taken in isolation wouldnt have received a card but in that kind of game it showed consistency and it was a measure to stop anything more serious occuring.

Good to see referee consistency and also bravery to show the red, I think many would have given a yellow for the second tackle because it is an easy get out for a ref.
Good work

By Anonymous, at July 24, 2008 10:01 am
I think if anything WP were harshly dealt to. But overall, considering the deciosons, I suppose marius jonker was spot on. The Francois Louw (3rd tackle) wasn't really dangerous.

By Anonymous, at July 24, 2008 10:07 am
You could nearly make a TSRB vid out of that

By Anonymous, at July 24, 2008 10:33 am
just wondering i know obviously your'e allowed to dump in games but when you spear is just because you drop them in the air or what

By Anonymous, at July 24, 2008 11:05 am
to the guy who said why is there no grass in south africa the pitches just get burnt to shit and the last one was not a spear at all was late though

By Anonymous, at July 24, 2008 11:12 am
"Agree with ref fully on all three counts.
First two were clear cut, third perhaps taken in isolation wouldnt have received a card but in that kind of game it showed consistency and it was a measure to stop anything more serious occuring.

Good to see referee consistency and also bravery to show the red, I think many would have given a yellow for the second tackle because it is an easy get out for a ref.
Good work"

Sums it up perfectly.

Takeing a player behond the horizontal eg head goes bellow hips is a major part of it, also how the tackle is continued ie driving the player down or dropping of just going with the momentum.

By Anonymous, at July 24, 2008 11:17 am
first one yellow card
second one always going to be red he never had control of the tackle ones he picked the guy up
and the third was that in slow motion he got picked up and then it looked like they just kinda landed in a gay heap yellow card still because it was nearly dangerous and seeing how many other dangerous tackles there was the ref needed to take action

By Anonymous, at July 24, 2008 12:03 pm
hit and drive at 0.10-0.12secs is awsome!

By Unknown, at July 24, 2008 2:42 pm
All correct decision, last one maybe slightly harsh but you can't argue. These sort of tackles need to be punished. By the way rugbydump the tackle on Barkley in the world cup was 100 times worse.

By Anonymous, at July 24, 2008 2:47 pm
haha what a great game!!!
The hit after about 35-40 seconds...sounds like the commentator said great tackle by chewbacca!!!!

By Anonymous, at July 24, 2008 3:09 pm
The 1st tackle was not a spear but it was dangerous as the tackled player was not taken down to the ground by the tackling player, I would reckon that the yellow card is probably fair, however a penalty would not be to lenient. The 2nd tackle was not a spear only through a technicality, the tackled played was taken through more than 180 degrees and was deposited on his back so the tackle was not to dangerous, but the red card is again probably fair. The third tackle is not a spear the played is taken to the ground so as far as I am concerned it is not a spear he only went through 90 degrees and he wasn't dropped. So I would say no laws broken and no need for anything not even a penalty. As the commentator said it was close to a spear tackle but it wasn't one. And you don't give tries forward passes or high tackles it they are close to being.

By Anonymous, at July 24, 2008 3:10 pm
Felt the third guy was a little harshly done by. Think he just crumpled in trying to get the fellah down safely. 2nd one red card, it's the way it is now and rightly so. First one yellow card too, the ref dealt very well with the game. Credit where credit's due, if we're quick to point out error we should be quick to praise too.

By Anonymous, at July 24, 2008 3:37 pm
It seems refs are unable to differentiate between a dump and a spear. 1 n 2 were correct decisions, 3 was nonsense

By Anonymous, at July 24, 2008 3:54 pm
+1 to the above.
the third was not bad at all.

FYI: I think RSA commentators are seriously retarded. So plain and 99.9% of the time are wrong. I'd rather listen to the radio.

Robbie

By Anonymous, at July 24, 2008 4:10 pm
ok for me

1st yellow : harsh yellow he brought the guy up and over the horizontal but then let him go with no intention to drive the player into the ground.

I can see why he was given a yellow "for not bringing the player down safly" but from my point of view he didnt bring him down harshly either.

The Red : imo yellow : there was no attempt by the tackler to drive the player into the ground but the tackler did manage to land on top of him once on the floor. thinking about it more maybe he did deserve the red after all lol.

2nd yellow : yes a yellow, at the end you can see the tackler relises and tries to change the way the player lands.

I watched this whole game and must admit it was a great game to watch one of the best ive seen in a good few months alot of good hard rugby played by both sides

RyeBye

By Anonymous, at July 24, 2008 4:23 pm
I think the red card was the right thing to do. Really dangerous tackle. No need to risk the other player´s season or health for nothing.
And the last yellow card can be discussed. But anyway i may be "oldschool" but i don´t argue what the ref´s say. I trust them in most cases and believe they are humans that may make some mistakes.

By Anonymous, at July 24, 2008 5:39 pm
Good ref...he should be working the big games in future.

By semperfimamba, at July 24, 2008 5:49 pm
My mistake...he has worked big games..

By semperfimamba, at July 24, 2008 5:54 pm
Agree with all 3 decisions;

1 - Yellow: No intent to damage, but didn't bring the player safely back down.

2 - Red: Full on spear. through 180 degrees, and lands his weight on top of the player.

3 - Yellow: Could be preceived as harsh taken on it's own, but given the previous 2 incidents, it was spot on consistency by the ref.

By Anonymous, at July 25, 2008 2:49 pm
I agree with the decisions, he was tryingto kill him in that 2nd one, the other two weren't so malicous

By olwaka, at July 25, 2008 3:28 pm
The red card is a definate! the first yellow is harsh but the second yellow is a joke...not even a penalty!! the commentator's comments at the end are baffling? its a rough sport, what does he expect !!??

By Anonymous, at July 25, 2008 7:16 pm
I hate mediazone.com. genuine hatred

By Anonymous, at June 11, 2009 1:13 am