Kieran Read Yellow Card

Ok - now were done with Du Plessis. What on earth was Kieran Read supposed to have done to earn a yellow card? Absolutely nothing in it. 

He makes contact with his opposite number for about one one hundredth of a second with both eyes on the ball as he backs away from the teetering lifted springbok. 

The SA number 8 over balances because the ball isn't straight, and his lifters 18 and 19 pretty much drop him in a rush to form a maul.

Look at where Poite is standing and looking. He's not even looking at what happened because he's watching the Steven luatua at the back of the line out. 

SA number 19 then mimes a pushing gesture at Read and Poite goes straight to a yellow. 

Now if I've ever seen an "evening it up" card, that was it.

Was that what it was for GE? I recall the incident. If he got a card for that then he should have that YC written off like Bismarck did. Seems like a bit of a double standard.

ps. Bismarck incidents reviewed by SA refs

http://www.sareferees.com/News/law-discussion-that-red-card/2829987/

Anyone recall John Smit elbowing a Frenchman in the throat in 2005? Got cited and copped a 6 week ban, red card incident?

From the article above....

"As a matter of interest John Smit acted similarly against the French captain, Jérôme Thion, when South Africa played France at Stade de France in 2005. After the match Smit was cited, found guilty and suspend for six weeks, which suggests that the IRB regarded it as a red-card offence".

Aparently Read was given a yellow for taking out a jumper. Firstly there is no way he did, and secondly...yellow? I've seen it penalised in vastly more clear cut cases but rarely seen a yellow for it.

I recall the Thion incident. My word, the IRB being inconsistent, whatever next?

They need to sort it out, surely it can't be hard to keep a record of these things and apply consistent rulings?

From fairly extensive experience working in French culture, I can be that "romain Poite accepts that Bismark Du Plessis did not deserve a yellow card" went something like this "ok ok ok! If you say this is not a yellow card then ok! It's not a yellow card then! Ok!" And we can safely bet romain Poite will never award another yellow card until he's hauled up for the exact same thing but in reverse then it'll be "ok ok ok! You told me not to show the yellow card and now you say show the yellow card so I'm doing just what you say. It's no problem. You change your mind twice so I follow exactly what you say. Next time you don't want a yellow card again then tell me that you changed your mind again"

Rather than the brief and eloquent statement from the IRB.