Nigel Owens gives his verdict on despicable Cheslin Kolbe yellow
Yellow or red? That has been the big question this week after Cheslin Kolbe and Pieter-Steph du Toit teamed up to dump Mack Hansen into the ground at the Aviva Stadium last Saturday.
Referee Nika Amashukeli decided to show the fullback a yellow card, and plenty of people have argued either way. Well Nigel Owens has now had his say on the decision on the latest episode of Whistle Watch. He said:
“Now then, one that got you all talking and asking the question out there, the Kolbe yellow card in the Ireland versus South Africa game out in Dublin. So, you have two players involved in this so there comes a bit of mitigation in it because there’s another player making a tackle as well, that can change the dynamics of the tackle. But here, Kolbe clearly does lift the player above the horizontal and turns him. Then, the key thing here, he doesn’t make an effort to bring him back down safely.
“So the referee’s looking at this and saying ‘to me, I’m looking at a yellow card here because the player does land a little bit safer than he would have done on his neck and his head.’ So, when you listen to how the referee is reviewing this, you are sitting there and going ‘OK, I can understand that and I can follow that and I can accept that. So, in this instance here, the referee calls it, sees it and makes the decision, so it’s a correct yellow card.”
While this is the verdict of a Test refereeing centurion, that still might not be enough for some people, as even in the video Owens highlighted that Koble, and du Toit, made no effort to bring Hansen down safely. They were just saved by the fact that the winger put his arm out to break the fall.
Take a look at the video:
