Jonathan Sexton to face probe over "play acting"

[crossref]

thoughts on this one?

http://www.rugbyonslaught.com/2016/03/a-super-rugby-player-has-dived-and-its.html

this is completely different and much worse

in this case he pretends he's been a victim of foul play, when no such foul play happened
in Sexton's case he WAS the victim of foul play, for which the ref issued a YC.

So Sexton he wasn't inventing foul play, there WAS foul play, and it WAS serious. OK you might think he over-egged it, but that's a stern word from the referee, not a disciplinary/match ban level offence.

 

[Ian_Cook]

in this case he pretends he's been a victim of foul play, when no such foul play happened

I disagree totally. McGahan was definitely a victim of foul play..Samu Kerevi pulled McGahan's jersey, and when that didn't slow him down, Kerevi pulled his arm & shoulder back

[LAWS]Law 10.4 (e) Playing a player without the ball is dangerous play.
Sanction: Penalty kick[/LAWS]

[LAWS]10.4 (f) Playing an opponent without the ball. Except in a scrum, ruck or maul, a player who is
not in possession of the ball must not hold, push or obstruct an opponent not carrying the
ball.
Sanction: Penalty kick[/LAWS]


The issue for me was that McGahan made it out to be a lot worse than it was. His antics were to draw attention to the foul play; he certainly did not make it up out of whole cloth, but it is still completely unacceptable behaviour in my book.

 

[crossref]

well, you may be right.
It just goes to show how difficult the new Law will be, where it seems to be an offence to pretend that act of foul has happened, when it didn't.

But what if it did ? Is it an offence to draw the referee's attention to a real act of foul play?

 

[Ian_Cook]

well, you may be right.
It just goes to show how difficult the new Law will be, where it seems to be an offence to pretend that act of foul has happened, when it didn't.

But what if it did ? Is it an offence to draw the referee's attention to a real act of foul play?

Agree to a point. It would have been much better to simply issue a directive reminding referees that actions committed by any player to either mislead the referee into thinking an infringement has been committed, or to exaggerate the seriousness of an infringement, are "Acts contrary to good sportsmanship" and must be penalised under Law 10.4 (m). Perhaps WR could have used one of your secret memos crossref!!

However, I don't think that drawing the referee's attention to foul play should be an infringement in and of itself. If, for example, I get my eyes poked or my bag snatched, I'm GOING to let the referee know about it.