One of the biggest talking points from the Ireland vs Australia draw at Croke Park was the Wycliff Palu sin-binning for an alleged dangerous tackle on Rob Kearney. We'll have another look at it as it's still a big topic for discussion.
Kearney collected the ball and rather than kick, he chose to run straight into 120kg Palu, who put in a massive hit that rocked the Ireland fullback to the floor.
Referee Jonathan Kaplan was slightly behind where the tackle took place, and obviously saw Kearney bounce off the hit from Palu, leading him to believe it had the impact of a traditional shoulder charge type hit.
"I thought it was a pretty good hit but he obviously saw it the other way," Palu explained later.
"When I started seeing him reach into his pocket, I was trying to say 'sorry let's talk about it' but I think he'd already made up his mind. I think he said no arms, shoulder charge."
Palus arms looked to be wrapping around his man as he made the front on tackle. There was no shoulder charging motion, and the hit seemed to be at the correct height to be considered legal.
Weve included comments from the BBCs Keith Wood, Jeremy Guscott, and Jonathan Davies. Interestingly, its the Irishman Wood who is the only one who views the hit as illegal, while the other two neutrals think its perfectly fine.
Ben Tune, in the Australian studio, also couldnt believe Palu was yellow carded.
The Wallabies were playing pretty well at the time and with Palu off for ten minutes, lost a little momentum. Do you feel that Kaplan got it wrong, or was he correct to yellow card Palu?
Time: 03:22
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