Flanker Mahamadou Diaby produced two huge handoffs to score a try for Bordeaux Bèngles against Grenoble in round seven of the Top 14.
The 28-year-old fended off former South Africa international Raymond Rhule and then fullback Gaetan Germain to score Bordeaux’s first try of the match in the 35th minute.
Diaby’s solo effort was the beginning of a comeback for the away side, coming from 25-3 down to lose 28-25 after 80 minutes, leaving Bordeaux seventh after the first quarter of the season.
I get so tired of glorified throat punches being hailed as great fends. Should a defender do the same to a ball carrier, he would be sat down with a red card. Why do we encourage a different standard when a ball carrier does it to an attempted tackler.
How can you be offended by a good fending ? Anyway, if you want to stop a solid flanker, tackle him low, not high. Simple isn't it?
I say just let it slide. I can't be bothered with there being yet ANOTHER reason for people to get penalised. Also, in all my years of watching and playing I've literally never seen anyone get seriously hurt from a fend.
Wait, where was the punch exactly? Where did he connect with anybody's throat? What's wrong with fending? Why would you want to put in a fend as a defender at all? Sooo many questions!
Sorry, didn't address your question. It isn't allowed for a tackler to strike the ball carrier about the head or neck at all. My question is why is it allowed for the ball carrier to strike the tackler about the head or neck. By the laws, it isn't, but referees let it slide.From a purely practical reason, it would be a pretty effective way to bring someone down if punching were allowed. ;-)
Take a closer look at the still that decorates the top of this post. You'll see him fending off the first tackler by stiff arming him in the throat. In the video, you can also see the first tacklers head tilt during the fend in an odd way, but the still should be enough.The second tackler gets fended perfectly via a shove to the shoulder, which has the extra effect of separating the ball carrier from the tackle as well. My exasperation is not just about this incident. It seems to be perfectly acceptable for a ball carrier to push away a tackler by the face now; happens all of the time.
Law 9.24 - A ball-carrier is permitted to hand off opponent provided excessive force is not used.https://laws.worldrugby.org/?highlight=hand%20off&law=9If you think either of those fends were dangerous, then rugby is not the sport for you.
OK, I agree the first fend was close to the throat, but I still think he got him on the chest, albeit high on the chest. Can't see the head tilt that you describe, and there was no reaction by the "victim" that would indicate he was caught at the throat. You keep talking about "punching" and "striking", but that's not what a fend is about. If your fend includes too much of a striking motion, you can and probably will get penalised. As others have commented here, a properly executed fend (like in this video) almost never results in injury (like in this video), so I don't see a problem with it, even if it is to the face.
Ditto
Just curious, but what is the magic combination to keep paragraph breaks in comments? Mine are getting stripped out when hitting submit.
That's a good question. We have a new commenting system up so lets try some htmlHopefully that works
So just use < br > without those spaces, and should will get a linebreak. Use it twice to have a space between paragraphs