James Haskell believes the replaying of crunching hits on big screen TVs, at stadiums, is “a circus”.
Ten days on from Ireland’s defeat to England and we would not be surprised if Conor Murray’s bell was still ringing.
The Irish scrum-half was given just as much attention by the English players as Johnny Sexton and left the pitch in the closing minutes with a facial injury.
Twenty minutes before he was kicked in the head, arm and chest by Mike Brown, in one ball-searching flurry, Murray had been lit up by Haskell.
The Wasps forward, playing at openside, was a split second too late to prevent a Murray pass from finding its intended target. Haskell had already lined Murray up for a big hit and followed through.
It was all said and done in a matter of moments but Haskell, who was sin-binned for the hit, believes slow motion replays on the big screen are unhelpful to players competing at break-neck speeds. He tells The Guardian:
“Reviewing incidents is a good idea but playing it on the big screen, making it a big circus, is not constructive.
“I think the referee, or the people who are making the judgment, should do it away from the big screen. I don’t know why it is made a spectacle… Maybe the TV people can have access to it once a decision has been made but, as it is, I don’t think it is great for rugby.”
[Got to 1:25:00 if video does not load properly]
https://youtu.be/Octf5-w2zVA?t=1h25m
Haskell was given 10 minutes of cooling off for the swinging arm tackle but he contests the decision:
“Slowing anything down makes it 10 times worse than it actually is. If you notice I pulled out, turned my head well away, there was no intent.
“I was shocked when I saw how slowly they were replaying it. If they need to see it again, fine, but they should watch it in real time and take the crowd out of the equation.”
Haskell also joked that England may have to get this weekend’s TMO in for a coffee and ask him not to be so eager to ask for multiple replays.
