Rugby Championship 2023

NZ looked liked they struggled with Australia's physicality. France won't have failed to notice that, and their players are much better at getting the ball free to support runners after making a half break. Going to be a cracker of a game.

Agreed. NZ are looking a lot better than they have over the last couple of years. Still don't see them winning the RWC this year.

Oz will be making the semi finals at a minimum, because of their draw.

while 2 of the top 4 teams in the world will be gone at the quarterfinal, well done world rugby.

I think in sport the scores are exactly the sum total of what happens in a match.

The direct carrying that yielded one solitary score over 80 minutes?

Missing my point, but anyways.

Nasty hit there, very reminiscent of Stander's incident.

Feels wrong that that's not a red card, regardless of the ball contact.

Would they not of just had another round of games next week given its it's same match ups next weekend as today

Yea, like it's a straight red if he hadn't blocked the ball.

Bad as Argentina are if they had a kicker they would have won that comfortably. De Allende's standard for Munster seems to be his standard. That said SA's defence was a lot stronger today, maybe that's down to Argentina not have the brains in mid field but SA really strangled them in their own 22 for the last half hour.

The big difference was Stander didnt have a realistic chance of charging down Lambie's kick successfully so was deemed reckless. Its unfortunate what happened but ultimately the Argentine player had a legitimate chance of charging down the ball and was successful so I dont really see how there is foul play, its very unfortunate what happened but sadly that's just how the game goes.

What I do find interesting is how the same fans who were angry that Freddie Steward got a red card against Ireland for a "rugby incident" now want the Argentine player sent off...

It doesn't sit right but ultimately before a card can be issued the referee have to decide whether there has been foul play and reality is there has been as he successfully charged the ball down so you cant really say there was.

The other issue I have is if that is penalised you might get more players looking to get hit in those situation in order to buy a penalty of a card for the opposition (obviously not what Williams was doing but you know there will be a few sneaking buggers out there that may try although not as dangerously as this incident).

In no other context would clear contact with the head go unpenalized. We see any number of well intentioned tackle efforts be called. Why is this treated any differently? The outcome of the charge down entirely dictated Brace's decision.

Tackler puts his head on the wrong side, gets a knee and gets knocked out. Clear head contact, is that penalised? Tackler gets a shoulder to the face from the ball carrier, clear head contact. Is that penalised?

As said below, that's not a comparable situation. It's more akin to a player mistiming a jump to compete for a ball, and causing the other player to land dangerously. Genuine attempt at a legal challenge, but reckless in execution.

Mallia cited there, so we'll see what comes from it.

I thought it was a legitimate challenge, with an unfortunate outcome for the other player.

Rugby is a phycal game, this was just a rugby incident. If this results in a ban, i think the game as we know it is screwed.

We can't be an outcome based, decision game.

Yeah, his body position when he collided was terrible and was reckless. But another point is that he touched the ball because it was an awful kick with an angle that was way too low for an attempted clearance. The fact that he blocked the ball could just as easily be ignored for that reason. If he hadn't blocked the ball would it have been an easier decision for the ref to award a card?