All Blacks v Ireland part III - July 16 8.05am Ireland time

But the cost to the other team is uneven too. If I do a late hit and take out Johnny Sexton in the 1st minute of the game, I can be replaced by another player after 20 mins, but Johnny is out for the entire game....

If I take out Johnny at the 60th minute, he's only been removed from the final quarter of the game

A red card offense is the most severe punishment available in a game of rugby. It needs to punish both the player, and his team, because otherwise it incentivises tactics where the key player from another team can be deliberately injured

In the business end of a tournament, the only punishment that counts is on the pitch, citing the player or banning them afterwards is meaningless, for example, Porter will get a 2-3 game suspension which will be for games that he wasn't going to be selected for anyway as he will be rested at the start of next season to make up for his extended season with Ireland

There are plenty of things that happen in rugby that are accidental, or have no malice, or are due to mistiming in a dynamic situation. 

And the referees have plenty of scope to look at those mitigating factors and decide on the level of sanction.

The rules don't need to change, player behaviour does.

Concussions are at an all time high because players are bigger and stronger than ever and there are more games than ever.

I'm guessing a Head Knock is where they have a minor head injury that is not deemed to be a concussion and they'll be back after a week or so, a HIA is where they're still assessing the injury to see if it's concussion or not, or if they're on the return to play protocols, while concussion is the most severe of the three where there is persistent concussion symptoms and the player has failed the assessments in the return to play protocols and so they cannot give any estimate of when they might recover

Some of these guys may never play again, and others will play again who probably shouldn't

The simple fact is, there's no such thing as minor brain trauma, and it's cumulative. The game is inherently unsafe, and at a certain point that will have to be acknowledged. Likelihood some kind of recognition and baseline compensation established, along with a liability wavier.

God no. We should be about 'attacking spaces not faces' when playing rugby and stopping offloading before player goes to ground means far more tackle/rucks. a slower game. more collisions and more potential injuries. a slower game when all changes to the laws should be about creating a more open game while ensuring a fair contest is kept.

Stopping offloads before the player is taken to ground wouldnt remove any incentive to tackle high. You tackle higher to prevent the ball coming back as fast. even if the ball carrier doesnt attempt to offload before going to ground.

and what syd says...

Best tell the citing commission that considering they ruled the yellow was correct and no further action was required.

Very hard for a player to go against a natural reaction.

If you look at the two most obvious examples:

Ta'Avao - doesn't attempt the tackle, avoids hurting himself, doesn't hurt Ringrose. Nothing comes of the play anyway as there's plenty of cover and Ringrose running laterally.

Porter - doesn't attempt the tackle. clean line break, Ireland in trouble?

N.Z fans and media are up in arms over the series. You'd swear they have a right to be the best. It's sport! Like every sport, there's purple patches and lows. Look at Barca or Man U! Like every other generation, there's bound to be teams improving and evolving, it's natural.

We piss n moan ourselves and so do most nations. I would not say that Ireland are brilliant. I'd say that N.Z are average and we're going to learn more next month. Sports are competitive and there's nothing guaranteed. Referees are poor (imo) and results could vary on the appointment of a referee.

The idea that the Porter incident decided the series is just rugby. If the decision had gone the other way, maybe the result changes. Maybe not! Over 3 test matches, Ireland were clearly the better team!

How often do NZ dominate games these days? They almost always have purple patches, and score from broken play.

Ireland can absolutely dominate NZ and only win by 10 points, if NZ dominate a game they will end up winning to 20-30. I don't think things have changed much in that regard.