At last.... Justice prevails...

First topic message reminder :

At last a ref who's not afraid to referee the All Blacks correctly, resulting in correct IRB rankings...

Well don Wales........ No1 spot at last and deserved since at least 2005.




Not been a fan of Garcès but he's made my Christmas card list...

There are going to need him. Personally I think Retallick is on the way out, injuries, poor form, age etc. Id be tempted to play Barrett more often anyway.

Barrett will be a handy enough bench player in the RWC. Personally, I think the ABs are coasting and experimenting and the likes of yourself are prone to a bit of over-excitement. Probably stuck in that ‘peaking between RWCs’ mindset that Ireland are famous for.

The criteria is games you would have played in if you were suspended, not games you could have played in.

Are NZ saying they would have picked Barrett for the Australia game and then had 2 weeks in the Mitre Cup? In which case he should be available for the Tonga game. But I can't believe he would have done both (played against Australia and then been released to play the very next week).

I think they need to tweak that rule prospectively. As the NZ squad is staying together for the duration of the ban, IMO he should be banned for 3 NZ game weeks with the automatic assumption being that he would have stayed with the squad - as this is the harsher penalty. The exception would be if the entire squad disbands in the gap weeks and are made available to their clubs (e.g. how France do in the Six Nations), then and only then can you be sure that the player would have been made available for his club - in which case club games can count as meaningful weeks.

My other gripe with meaningful weeks is you are also banned on "non-meaningful" weeks. When I received a 2 week ban a couple of years back, I was told that the second week of my ban didn't contain a meaningful fixture (just a game against a touring side) so the ban would be extended a week. But I was still banned for the tour game, despite it not being considered meaningful.

Gee wish I was banned a couple of years back, no complaining there...

Barrett was definitely going to play Eden park. He's got three weeks so misses the that test. He could have got six and probably not been picked for the world cup but good behaviour, early plea etc had that reduced to 3.

The ban is about a cooling period for the player. Red means early shower, no more rugby for you today, the ban is time to think about it.

Its not about the subsequent after effects of where he gets to play again, or cheap shots of other sides 'ooh we can get some mileage outta that' rubbish, nor should that be the concern of the judiciary.

And if people are going to say best to start getting your reds in last game of the season I'd like to know a precedent for that.

If you get a ban at the end of the season it pauses and rolls over to the next season, so there's no great benefit to that. Really you want to get sent off in December and get Christmas off if you're planning them.

If it makes you feel better Taylorman, I'll make sure I complain the next time someone gets sent off and games the meaningful fixture rules.