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Tue 18 Dec 2018 | 10:33
Munster fans and former player incensed by Castres' dirty play and what Kockott did to Cloete

7
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Castres's 13-12 victory over Munster has come under intense scrutiny, with words like "blight" and "disgrace" being used by former players to describe what went on. Throughout the match, there were several questionable incidents, some of which were left unchallenged by Wayne Barnes and crew.

*Scroll down for citing update

Castres avenged last weekend's 30-5 loss at Munster with an aggressive but controversial performance. Some obvious bad blood exists between the two sides and it materialised for the hosts in the form of a tip tackle, slide tackle and alleged eye rake.

Late in the match, Munster were attacking when Marc-Antoine Rallier was yellow carded for tackling Peter O'Mahoney off the ball with no arms. Many think he was quite lucky not to receive a straight red as O'Mahoney clearly landed on his shoulders.

Another questionable tackle from the same passage of play drew condemnation from Leinster legend Brian O'Driscoll. Munster looked to have scored a try through a brilliant chip and chase by Andrew Conway. Upon review, it was deemed that Conway had knocked the ball forward and the try was disallowed.

The problem with that decision is it completely ignored the slide tackle from Benjamin Urdapilleta.

Speaking on BT Sport, O'Driscoll made his feelings quite clear, saying: "It's not football, you can't have a slide tackle! World Rugby need to stamp down on that, it's a blight on the game."

Perhaps the most controversial moment from the night was France international Rory Kockott's alleged eye rake on fellow South African Chris Cloete.

Referee Wayne Barnes had it brought to his attention by the Munster players, so mentioned it to the TMO who had a quick look but couldn't see anything conclusive on video.

"It's been mentioned to the citing officier, okay? We can deal with it after," is what Barnes reported back.

Some have questioned Barnes's performance on the day, including former Ireland international Alan Quinlan: "I thought Castres' discipline was a disgrace and they were a disgrace and I have no problem saying that."

"I guarantee you if Nigel Owens was reffing that game, both captains would have been called out, 'There are things going on and if it continues I'm going to take action' and then the next fella that does it is gone."

Controversial calls aside, Munster didn't take their chances when needed and came up short. With the loss, they will now need to win the remaining two pool games to have a chance at advancing to the knockout stages of the Champions Cup.

UPDATE: Both Kockott and hooker Rallier have now been cited for their respective incidents.

Credit: Heineken Champions Cup/@threeredkings/@MeinNameIstDan

Posted By: davidharper

7 Comments

  • 45678
    8:42 PM 18/12/2018

    Ireland are in a great place at the moment, but this level of bitching and football style appealing for players to be sent off is beginning to get boring. 

  • colombes
    6:06 PM 18/12/2018

    I did not know RD was the book of irish fans complaints.The sort of complaints which always appear to mare the opposition victory. Eye-rake or not, i guess kockott will take a ban, to calm the nerves of everyone. This is how it works isnt it?

    • rugbydump
      8:39 AM 19/12/2018

      Sadly, that does seem to be how it works. Unfortunately, we can't understand the French complaints, or we would share them too :)

      • colombes
        9:38 AM 19/12/2018

        French fans are never shy to also present their complaints. Problem is complaints are the first steps to football culture. Don't we proudly say "this is not football" when we see players speaking with the ref, milking or provoking ? I don't have problems with fans debating each others on rugby actions, but when pundits, former players, managers become "new social media sheriffs" complaining about anything in a partisan way, i just can't stand it. 

  • pickay
    3:01 PM 18/12/2018

    As I assume my opinion is very important to the rugby world, I will
    share it with you (you are welcome): If you want to whinge like a
    5-year-old you can absolutely see it the way it's been presented with
    those quotes and tweets from Irish supporters. If not, then you could
    also see it differently: 1. The guy who tackled O'Mahony was
    yellow-carded, so what else do you want? With 10 minutes left in the
    game the colour of the card doesn't even matter anyway. 2. If you watch
    the wide shot (and not just the isolated clip of the collision) you can
    see both players running towards the ball and both players sliding in to
    get it. Conway is fractionally faster and gets there first, but he does
    the exact same thing as Urdapilleta. And a knock-on it was. 3. Kockott
    has been cited. Looks like he was being a dick. Everybody is very quick
    to shout "eye-gouge" nowadays, whenever a hand gets near someone's face.
    I didn't see it. But I saw an Irish player appealing to the ref like a
    soccer player.

    • im1
      9:19 AM 19/12/2018

      1. Yep. 2.  I think this is a tough one. I don't think Urdapilleta could have complained if he was penalised there. There was a very similar incident in the Eng NZ rugby league recently, which was awarded as a penalty try (to much debate). 3. Gouging isn't a term in the disciplinary guidelines. So whether a supporter shouts it, it is irrelevant. Kockott definitely made contact with the eye area from this angle. There is a good chance he made contact with the eye/eye lids/eye cavity as well. So thats a minimum 6 week ban starting point if deemed reckless or minimum 12 week if deemed intentional (which would seem a bit harsh. Given it was pretty quick and there was no damage caused it is probably low end. But he should have been sent off.  I would say all three went against Munster and numbers 2/3 would probably have won them the game, so its fair they would feel a bit hard done by. But those whining about it should get over themselves. They are probably the vocal minority though, so should just be ignored.

    • rugbydump
      5:10 PM 18/12/2018

      Kockott has never been shy to slap a face, and that's what he appeared to do. The eye gouging claims have been a bit OTT. He probably made contact with the eyes/eye area in the process though. Let's see what they rule. 

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