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Thu 15 Dec 2011 | 09:10
Morgan Parra vs George Chuter, and Manu Tuilagi simultaneous yellow

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Comments

Morgan Parra was destroyer in chief as Clermont got the better of Leicester Tigers in round 3 of the Heineken Cup, winning the game 30-12 following two yellow cards for the visitors. Here's a look at what happened as Alain Rolland sent two to the sin-bin.

Fresh from making a huge call at the Rugby World Cup, referee Rolland was in the thick of it again as this time he was required to judge on a rather complicated situation that involved two players making dangerous tackles at the exact same time.

In the case of George Chuter, he and Clermont scrumhalf Morgan Parra had started a little scuffle on the floor in the previous phase of play. In fact they had only just split up and returned back into their defensive and attacking lines respectively when the action came their way again.

In a fairly amusing case of having his meal served up right in front of him, Chuter had the opportunity to smash Parra legally, and he went for it. Unfortunately for him his timing was a bit off - not that he was too bothered - and he hit the smaller man without the ball. Parra milked it, as one does, and another fight between the two ensued.

At the exact same time Manu Tuilagi, who was only just back from a cheek injury, put in a high tackle on prop Vincent Debatty. Referee Rolland consulted with his touch judge and they actually did quite well to spot what had happened, resulting in yellow cards for both Tuilagi and Chuter. Parra, who was up and fine again, could be seen taunting them as they left the field.

There has also been talk of a bite on the arm of Chuter, which can be seen very briefly at the very end of the video. Nothing more has come of that though, with no complaints and no citings.

"The atmosphere in Clermont is pretty volatile, and everyone lies down as if they have been shot, but Alain is a good referee and he dealt with it as he saw fit," said Tigers coach Richrd Cockerill.

"We will just crack on in this competition. The best side won on the day and obviously the yellow cards didn't help us," added Cokerill, referring to the heavy loss away from home. Clermont travel to Welford Road for the return leg this weekend in what should be another fascinating battle.

Posted By: Grant Constable

52 Comments

  • patedelievre
    2:32 PM 02/02/2012

    something else you can tell about Parra: the guy's a real geezer: not afraid of anyone nor anything, although he's smaller than the ref he never escapes when a tackle has to be made, wether the guy in front of him is a hooker or a wing... "les bleus" player call him "petit con", means "small prick" but with a lot of affection in it: reminds me of Agustin Pichot... the guy's gonna be a star one day: hes was only 22 at the RWC and look where he drove his team, although he was playing fly-half for the first time! and the All Blacks needed him of the field at all costs (remember what Rishit McCow had to throw at him to send him off) to win!!!
    ===>> considering he had the best stats for kicking, (around 95% I think) during the RWC, he wouldn't have missed the winning penalty Trinh Duc was given!

    anyway, f**** the All Blacks who, although best team ever, cheated their way to get the Webb Ellis, and hope we'll get back at them one day (a huge hit from Dusautoir on McCaw, would be the best!)

  • filth
    10:36 AM 05/01/2012

    no*

  • filth
    10:35 AM 05/01/2012

    God you are a wanker Pretzel. There is now way that was a red card offence! Rugby isn't a girls game.

  • pretzel
    1:18 PM 22/12/2011

    uh huh....because neither offence has been committed by anyone else before

  • ron_mexico
    8:32 PM 19/12/2011

    Milking a hit, taunting and biting.... Sounds like things little girls would do.
    Parra might be a really good player, but he is really pathetic, isn't he?

  • coops
    11:17 AM 19/12/2011

    I hate Parra.

    As in he is so annoying, dirty and mouthy.

    As in I wish he was on my team.

  • pretzel
    4:42 AM 19/12/2011

    Never mind, searched it and remember it, was VERY weak from a flanker!

  • pretzel
    10:53 AM 18/12/2011

    Can you enlighten me a little more, I may have missed the incident you are referring to... :/

  • uhtiger
    7:04 AM 18/12/2011

    42 seconds

  • uhtiger
    7:01 AM 18/12/2011

    Directly after he is hit he jumps on Chuter to fight him. Have a good look its very clear.

  • themull
    8:52 PM 17/12/2011

    He was on the ground "rolling around" after taking the late and very hard hit..How can any of us know if he is hurt or not..he could still be in pain while mouthing off at Chuter later..The fact he mouths off after does not automatically mean he must have been faking being hurt...

  • stroudos
    8:48 PM 17/12/2011

    Two words for you Pretzel: Heinrich Brussow.

  • uhtiger
    6:57 PM 17/12/2011

    As soon as Parra hits the ground he jumps on Chuter trying to fight him, the very next clip he's writhing on the ground "injured, the clip after Chuter has been carded and Parra is standing fine whilst giving him a talking to. If thats not simulating than i dont know what is.

  • uhtiger
    6:52 PM 17/12/2011

    Parra jumps on Chuter trying to fight him then in the very next clip he's lying on the ground "injured". As soon as Chuter gets carded he's on his feet giving chuter a serve. Most definitely looks like simulation to me.

  • buzzkillington
    6:13 PM 17/12/2011

    Neither are a yellow.

  • pretzel
    3:18 PM 17/12/2011

    I get that none of us like "play acting" but Cowan does it ALL the time, as do most other traditional scrum halves (smallish guys) its the new scrum halves like Mike Philips for Wales etc who can carry their own weight who would be giving it back some and not pretending to be injured...

    I don't like it, but as long as it stays in the scrum half region then I can just about live with it....

  • medicaluke
    1:18 PM 17/12/2011

    Best comment I've rread on RD lately

  • themull
    12:26 AM 17/12/2011

    Chuter deserved his yellow it was late and he knew what he was doing....Yellow for Manu I felt was harsh has it wasn't really aswinging arm, more him reacing out to grab the player because he got wrong footed..

    And to those claiming Parra was milking it I disagree....he just got tackled very hard and very late by a guy that probably weighs over 25kgs more than him...You take that hit and let me know how it feels

  • stroudos
    9:09 PM 16/12/2011

    Sankeor, I disagree. This sort of shit used not to happen. It seems to me very recently that a player writhing around PRETENDING to be hurt would be simply laughed off the pitch.

    You're not the only one to do this, but please don't mistake my criticism of Parra's behaviour here as a criticism of the player in general. I think he's awesome.

    Offside Rich is also a fantastic player, but I have never seen him simulating injury and I seriously hope I never do. I never thought I'd see the day when a back row forward would dive on the ground in a cynical attempt to get an opponent sent off and I still quite come to terms with the fact that cheating bastard Brussow did exactly that at the world cup.

    I still can't see Offside Rich ever resorting to that kind of bullshit. Then again, I thought he was full of integrity until that victory speech where he singularly failed to even mention France after such an incredibly close match.

  • stroudos
    9:00 PM 16/12/2011

    Excellent post. I like the bit about Parra's cynical headbutt to Offside Rich's knee (and elbow, if I remember correctly). As I do so many times when watching NZ I was screaming at the TV begging the ref to for once entertain the idea that His Holiness might actually have done something wrong.

    Also, by the way, I like Parra a lot. I think he's an awesome player and he proved his versatility in the world cup. And yes, as others have said, all scrum-halves need to have that antagonistic edginess about them.

    If he was hurt, I would have every sympathy. However, that was simply not the case here. If you scroll down to my chat with D-Matt, at the time of the tackle, Parra was locked and loaded and ready to punch Chuter in the head (again). The only thing that stopped was the fact Rolland was looking directly at him from a distance of 2m. (See 0:38-0:48 of the video).

    What I despise is the way he then pretended to be hurt, with the singular cynical objective of convincing the ref that the situation was worse than it was.

  • stroudos
    8:49 PM 16/12/2011

    D-Matt, Your description of events is absolutely correct and thank you for so clearly illustrating my point.

    At 0:40 into the clip you do indeed see Parra ready to pile into Chuter, indicating that he was not badly hurt. Next time you see him, at about 0:45, he's writhing around on the ground going "uuurrgh", to create the impression of being being injured, when in fact - as we've just established - he was not.

    That is as clear an example as you'll find of "simulation" - by which, to clarify, I mean "an attempt by a player to gain an unfair advantage by ... feigning an injury, to appear as if a foul has been committed." I've used the FIFA definition as that's where this horrible plague has come from.

  • stroudos
    8:41 PM 16/12/2011

    Hear hear!

  • jeroenek
    8:02 PM 16/12/2011

    Looks like he's milking it.

  • joeythelemur
    7:45 PM 16/12/2011

    Well said.

  • ianm
    6:03 PM 16/12/2011

    The yellow card to Chuter seems a bit harsh, but he shouldn't feel too hard done by - whilst it wouldn't always be given, it was probably a 50/50 call. The two things that I find disgusting about this clip are:

    The biting (if it did occur). As far as I'm concerned, biting and gouging are just about equal. It's a disgusting cowardly act.

    No-one else has commented on this yet, but in the scuffle at the start, it looked to me like Chuter and Parra had a bit of a barney, then Parra was about to walk away when Chuter said something and Parra jumped on top of Chuter, still on his back on the ground, like it was UFC. Seriously - attacking a man on the ground - what a coward.

  • matthew
    2:43 PM 16/12/2011

    No, just more bizarre refereeing in the HC. We (Saints) are due an HC game this season without any!

  • hry
    2:13 PM 16/12/2011

    Blaming Rolland for a call that his English linesman made?

  • d-matt
    1:51 PM 16/12/2011

    And for people like Stroudos who says that Parra is simulating...did you see the same video as I did ?!
    As soon as Parra hit the floor, he jumped on Chuter and was about to punch him but didn't because the referee was seeing him.
    How do call that a "simulation" ?

  • d-matt
    1:28 PM 16/12/2011

    High tackle + late revenche tackle. That's a yellow for both players.
    End of the story.

  • colombes
    10:51 AM 16/12/2011

    at first sight, i thought the decision was a bit harsh, but finally, it was not completly wrong:
    chuter yellow is deserved for 2 reasons: he first tackled late parra (and he did it also on few clermont players during the whole match), then the scuffle began, both players return in the game... and then chuter put not a high, but a clear late bump on parra. he was lookin for revenge. out
    on tuilagi, it's more a clumsy case, the guy is huge but often put his hands around the neck of the player. no malicious but yellow..
    so it was just a case of coincidence, as rolland assistant judged it

    concerning parra, he is famous to be cheeky and big mouth, but it's just in scrum halves nature. ask to gregan, pichot, stringer, troncon or care... they would have reacted in the same way ;) it's the eternal ostory of the little man who wants to fight witth the bigger ones.
    as for the football behaviours who perverted rugby... wtf, the scrum half have always been the "dickhead footballer" in a rugby team

    hate parra or not, the guy is multi-talented at only 23. he will calm down with age and certainly become the next france captain

    can't wait for the revenge in welford. i guess parra will have a good reception ;)

  • fettsack
    10:09 AM 16/12/2011

    No arguing about the Tuilagi yellow. About Chuter, normally this should have been a penalty for an obviously late tackle. As said before, he's not committed when parra makes the pass. But since less than a minute before he was fighting with the same player, it's just a revenge hit, so yellow too.
    I think parra was indeed hurt by the tackle but is was not high and he acts like it was so for adding a bit he should be warned. Some said it's a part of the whole n9 package but it probably shouldn't anymore!

  • guy
    9:35 AM 16/12/2011

    When Brussow hit the deck in the RWC match against Samoa, litterally everybody was fuming (me included) because it looked like he was milking it.

    And now I see comments of people that actually seem to think it is allright to milk it because in this case it is a scrumhalf and milking comes with the job....????!??

    I am sorry but IMHO this behaviour is one of the downsides of professionalism and the money in the game. It has got nothing to do with being smart or streetwise and is just the complete opposite and just too far off the time when players were only substituted when they had a serious injury (does the name Buck Shelford ring any bells? Obviously not to mr Parra...)

  • patedelievre
    9:02 AM 16/12/2011

    seriously... I'd not even consider this making up for all the anti-French refereeing...anyway, keep frustrated mate!

  • patedelievre
    8:45 AM 16/12/2011

    or you could just consider that it's what has to be done for referees doing their jobs. OR you can also consider than a guy weighing 70 kilos can actually get hurt by a prop weighing about 110...
    Remember what happened at the RWC final, with that slick git Parra trying to head-butt great and fair player McCaw's knee??? I bet you were asking for a sin bin to Parra back there...

  • 6:11 AM 16/12/2011

    I agree with the Chuter yellow, it was a late, deliberate attempt to obtain revenge and has no place in rugby, never has, never will. You wanna get a guy back, clear him off a ruck or smoke him when he has the ball, don't be a coward and hit him late.

    Actually, I have always found it amusing that many consider chuter's actions to be that of a "hard man" and that rugby is becoming "soft". Rugby is a game where anyone can take advantage of a vulnerable opponent on countless occasions during a game. The hard man doesn't take this opportunity, but waits for their opponent to be in a competitive situation, ie still with the ball, and then attacks. wusses hit late, high and shoulder charge, all of which require very little courage.

    as for Parra's antics, I don't agree with them either, though it's pretty tough for a ref to assess the level of pain someone is feeling. Perhaps we need a soccer type rule that if you stay down for an extended period and the trainer has to attend to you, you must come off the field?

    Manu, straight clumsy yellow.

  • paimoe
    6:07 AM 16/12/2011

    Full agree with this

  • krang
    3:55 AM 16/12/2011

    I think the facts of the matter are that
    a) Chuter was late, but not high
    b) Parra "milked it"
    c) The ref's wrongly thought that Chuter's tackle was high, most likely influenced by Parra

    Given this, I think it is harsh that Chuter gets Yellow. Does the law allow for a sending off for a late tackle? I think given the circumstances, Chuter was stupid to go in late.

    I don't want to see Rugby degenerate into a soccer style play-acting. Sure, players will want to do all they can to win, but I don't want actors when we should have rugby players. The ref's have a responsibility to act fairly and not be influenced by such behaviour. In this case they failed.

    Perhaps Rolland / the touch-judge can justify themselves by saying that Chuter was late, but this does not make it the right decision.

  • jumping04
    2:30 AM 16/12/2011

    Parra. What a class act. Chirps out other teams through the press, bites players arms, dives, milks it, then laughs as people are sent off. Agreed with Russell, I want Parra to become reacquainted with Lawes. Here is one of rugbydumps on videos of that meeting:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbDvGF5O6mg

  • moddeur
    2:05 AM 16/12/2011

    I won't go on about it for long, so let's just say that in my opinion it's: Tuilagi=yellow and Chuter=penalty.

  • welshosprey
    2:03 AM 16/12/2011

    lol at parra biting chuters arm at the end

  • uhtiger
    1:28 AM 16/12/2011

    Good old Rollain giving preferential treatment to the french again.

  • pretzel
    12:56 AM 16/12/2011

    I'll give Parra the rolling around bit, lets face it, he has a reputation, and as Sankeor said, it is a scrum half trait... When Lee Byrne did it then it got to me... and really lets face it, Jimmy Cowan is pretty renowned for play acting a bit!

    But really Chuter yellow was ridiculous, Manu yellow was borderline....

  • sankeor
    12:20 AM 16/12/2011

    I was replying to Stroudos

  • sankeor
    12:18 AM 16/12/2011

    I think you're partly wrong here.

    You can see that as a comment from a Parra supporter, you wouldn't be totally wrong, but that's what every good scrum-half would have done.
    If Parra did not "milk it", well I guess he would have to hand back himself his scrum-half membership card, don't you think ? Look at a guy like Peter Stringer, tell me he wouldn't have done the same thing.

    And one more thing: c'mon, you guys commenting seem to have known rugby for 50 years or more ! Honestly "this sort of shit" is applied at all levels and since the beginning of rugby. Parra is not a dirty player like... let's pick a player randomly, let's say Mr. McCheat, who really screws things ingame. No Parra is quite a fair player, he's just cleverer than Chuter.

    (and I see no biting in the video, that's subjective)

  • hry
    12:00 AM 16/12/2011

    Can't blame Rolland for a call his linesman made. Chuter probably didn't deserve a yellow for that (certainly not high) but if you watch the slo-mo from 2:06 it's clear that he wasn't committed to tackling Parra before the ball had gone, his head was up and it was a fairly cheap way to get one over a player he'd just been fighting.

    Manu's yellow is totally uncontroversial. No bad intent but round the neck and plenty dangerous.

  • rich_w
    11:50 PM 15/12/2011

    George Chuters yellow here is a bit of a joke. Rolland killed another game. Claremont would have won anyway, they were far better. But 15 vs 13 for 10mins is a bit ridiculous for what were two pretty low end offences.

    Completely agree with stroudos too, I despair at the way rugby is going, I really do.

  • stroudos
    11:49 PM 15/12/2011

    Also, George Chuter's going to have to hand back his front row union membership card - pinned to the floor and roughed up by a little scrum-half indeed. Tsk.

  • stroudos
    11:32 PM 15/12/2011

    2011. The year that "simulation" officially became truly prevalent in the game of rugby union.

    Alright, it's happened in the past, but this sort of shit has becoming more and more commonplace over the last 1-2 years. It is a poison, it has utterly destroyed the game of football and it will ruin rugby if it's allowed to continue.

    What Parra is doing here - rolling around pretending to be hurt when he's not, goading the others while they're leaving the field, not to mention the bloody biting! - is an absolute disgrace and must be clamped down on immediately.

  • pretzel
    11:05 PM 15/12/2011

    Actually, I'll borderline give you the yellow for Manu's high tackle...

  • rodofle
    11:01 PM 15/12/2011

    Tuilagi should have been given a red card for his haircut.

  • k1w1l1z
    11:00 PM 15/12/2011

    Para should have been yellow carded too, in my opinion..check out the very end of this video clip..see him having a good old chew on Chuter's arm!!

  • pretzel
    10:57 PM 15/12/2011

    Sigh, I suppose I'll be accused of trying to sound "hard" but, gone are the days when players get a slap on the wrist....

    I say bring out the reds next time, why you ask? well why not, give it another 5 years and this stuff will be life time ban worthy!

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