Things are heating up south of the border amongst our friends in Turnipstan and Mexico over the length of bans handed out for various offences committed by their players over the last few weeks. So much so it’s even sparked an article in ace piss takers The Daily Mash!
Big John Hayes, lovely bloke and all that, seems to have gotten of lightly for a fairly brutal, but by all accounts unintentional, assault on the face of his opponent using his boot, whereas Shane Jennings, lovely bloke and all that, appears to have be harshly treated for, what appeared to be, tweaking the ear of his opponent.
The big difference is that one offence was handled in house and the other was handled by the independent ERC Panel and I’m afraid in these cases it’s the ERC that got it right.
Irrespective of Hayes impeccable disciplinary record and whether or not the contact of boot to face was intentional or not it is exactly the sort of incident that has hysterical mothers dragging their children out of rugby into the arms of other sports less likely to physically maim their child.
Now, this is not a call to remove the more physical aspects from the sport for lets face it the chance to biff, bash and bosh your opponents around the field is the big attraction of the game, and how well you react to being biffed, bashed and boshed by your opponents in return is the great character building experience of the sport. No, this is a call to introduce a consistency of punishment so that all transgressors are treated equally.
In such a brutally punishing game there has to be a level of control from the individual player and it’s here where Hayes and Jennings let themselves and the game down. Hayes in his failure to control his feet, no matter how unintentional, and Jennings for he had absolutely no need to go anywhere near the face of his opponent, no matter how innocuous.
In my book both players were equally guilty and both should have received similar bans. Time now for the IRB to ensure that equal punishments are handed out across the board.
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