![]() ![]() But when his replacement Faiva was then sent off for connecting with the chin of Sheehan, there followed a bizarre few minutes as Amashukeli tried to apply the correct laws.Įffectively, because their starting hooker had already gone off, Italy had to bring on a front row player (prop Ivan Nemer) for a back (winger Pierre Bruno). The visitors had lost hooker Gianmarco Lucchesi to a shoulder injury by that stage. But Italy had dragged themselves back into it, Edoardo Padovani kicking a penalty to make it 7-3, when the madness began after 19 minutes. Joey Carbery crossed after three minutes following a great bit of interplay between Peter O’Mahony, Caelan Dorus and Dan Sheehan. After the anthems - and what proved to be the biggest cheer of the day for an announcement “strongly condemning” Russia’s invasion of Ukraine - they had weathered Ireland’s early storm. The irony was, far from protecting Italy’s players, which is the whole point of uncontested scrums, their 13 remaining men had to spend an hour trying to stem a tide of musclebound green giants, with Ireland able to bring on fresh, hulking players in the second half to add to their misery. Naturally, it also killed the game as a contest stone dead. But the law, in this case, is an ass.Ī law intended to prevent teams from faking injuries to exploit uncontested scrums - there were murmurs of cheating in a Wales-France game a few years ago, but the practice was hardly commonplace - left Italy doubly penalised, Ireland frustrated, and thousands of fans inside the Aviva Stadium, and millions more watching from home, utterly bemused. Referee Nika Amashukeli’s decision to order Italy’s No 8 Toa Halafihi from the field after sending off replacement hooker Hame Faiva for a dangerous tackle, and after Italy had brought on a third front rower, necessitating a move to uncontested scrums, may have been correct by the letter of the law. ![]() The game’s ruling body will find itself in the dock on Monday morning, and rightly so. But this game, in which Italy were reduced to 13 men for an hour following the application of one of World Rugby’s lesser-known bylaws, was like taking a bazooka to an already gangrenous leg. Rugby has a tendency to shoot itself in the foot from time to time with its labyrinthine laws.
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