Wales centre Jonathan Davies seems to have escaped a citing for his trip on England wing Chris Ashton in the Six Nations opener on Friday night. The cut off for a citing to be submitted was last night, and theres no news since.
Young Davies, sometimes known as Jon, stretched a stray leg out at a loose ball early in the second half, only to make contact with Ashtons leg in what looked a clumsy challenge.
It seemed to have been missed by referee Alain Rolland and his assistants, but a slow motion replay a minute or so later showed the viewing audience at home what happened. BBC commentator Brian Moore nearly swallowed his mic.
That’s a red he said, stating that theres no place for that on the rugby field. Hes right, but the replay did exaggerate matters tenfold, and if it was shown from a few frames back, the incident would have been put in perspective.
Nevertheless, it was a dangerous, clumsy challenge and as we saw with Jerry Flannerys leg trip on Alexis Palisson last year, the impact can be significant, and injury was lucky to be avoided.
“There was no bad intentions. I am not a dirty player,” said Davies about the incident.
“I would never go out to trip anyone. All I remember is putting the ball through on the floor, going to kick it on again and unfortunately I got his leg.
“There were no bad intentions at all. Hopefully nothing more will come of it.”
Jean-Etienne Bernard, the match commissioner, had a deadline of Sunday night to determine whether Davies should have received further punishment or not. It seems as though hes decided on the latter, but if anything changes well let you know.
What’s your take on it?
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