Remember the old days of rugby, when players like Danny Grewcock or Julian White would take no time to hesitate jumping over a ruck to thump an opposition player?
Nowadays a closed fist to the face would land a player with an immediate red card and in some seriously hot water.
Not in the days of the great Martin Johnson though, as we see below he takes an almighty right hook to the jaw in the great Bath Vs Leicester rivalry:
Match officials treated foul play very differently back in 1998. pic.twitter.com/pLgOqgAoMk
— Sir Iain M (@RedLeics) April 19, 2022
The referee wasn’t having any of the Bath player’s objections though:
“You can expect nothing…shut up…you can expect nothing but a penalty”
The commentators go on to describe the referee’s actions as ‘firm’, which can surely only refer to his mannerisms and not the decision he had given. What exactly would these players have had to have done to get a yellow card, let alone a red?
In the spirit of reminiscing about the ‘good old days’, have a look at a few other big old scraps from more recent times:
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