Barnes gets backing
The International Rugby Board and the Six Nations have combined to affirm the last penalty awarded by Wayne Barnes in the match between Ireland and Wales.
In the last minute, with Ireland leading buy a point, Barnes penalised Stephen Ferris from Ireland for a dangerous tackle and sent him to the sin bin. Leigh Halfpenny of Wales kicked the winning penalty.
The citing commissioner for the match, Achille Reali of Italy, cited Ferris. He also cited Bradley Davies for a dangerous tackle during the match. Davies had also been penalised and sin-binned
During the week the Six Nations disciplinary committee met and heard both cases. It suspended Davies for seven weeks (the rest of the season) and did not suspend Ferris at all.
On Wednesday the Irish Times carried the headline Barnes Got Ferris Decision Wrong for an article on the incident and the disciplinary decision. In it the manager of the Ireland team, Michael Kearney, is quoted as saying: “We are obviously delighted that Stephen has been totally exonerated of any wrongdoing by the disciplinary panel and that he is now available for selection this weekend against France,.
“While we understand and fully support the stance to stamp out dangerous tackles in the game to make it safe at all levels, the disciplinary panel itself felt that the decision to award a penalty was incorrect and we also felt that it was a fair and legitimate tackle by Stephen.
“He is a hard and fair player and I think that his previous disciplinary record supports why we felt so strongly about his defence. The focus now for Stephen and the rest of the squad is to prepare for the game against France this weekend.”
The disciplinary committee did not exonerate Ferris, nor did it feel “that the decision to award a penalty was incorrect”. It just did not uphold the citing, which meant further action, in effect saying that it was not a red card offence.
Now the IRB and the Six Nations have backed Barnes over the penalty decision that led to Ireland’s Ferris’s being yellow carded during the match at the Aviva Stadium.
The statement goes on to say: “While an Independent Six Nations Disciplinary Panel did not ultimately uphold the citing, the IRB’s match officials performance review endorsed Barnes’s decision to award a penalty. On first viewing the panel could understand exactly how the match referee came to his decision. In dismissing the citing no criticism of the referee’s on-field decision should be taken or inferred. It was only after careful and prolonged analysis of the dynamics of the contact, including slow motion and step by step viewing, that the committee was able to see the strength of the submissions made in favour of Stephen Ferris.”
