SAM WARBURTON INSISTS he is not fazed by the appointment of Alain Rolland as referee for Wales’ clash with South Africa on Saturday.
The Irishman controversially sent off the Welsh captain in the first half of a 2011 Rugby World Cup semi-final defeat to France for a dangerous challenge on Vincent Clerc.
But the 25-year-old admits he has never broached the subject with the official, who has only taken charge of a Wales match on one occasion since – a 2012 clash with the Barbarians for which Warburton was absent.
“I’ve barely spoken to him since the incident and have certainly never spoken to him about it,” he said.
“I don’t think I ever will either. It feels like such a long time ago, I seem to manage to forget about it until somebody brings it up. I joke about it now saying it was a PR stunt because nobody knew about me then.
“I don’t think it will have any bearing on how I work with the referee. I will not be doing anything different.”
And Warburton fears he may never be able to shake off the subject, which continues to crop up in his day-to-day life.
He added: “It (the red card) still comes up in conversation with me. I might be shopping around Sainsbury’s, but two years later people will shout from another aisle ‘it was never a red card’.
“Whether I am doing a question and answer session when I’m 60, somebody will ask me about it.”
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Condemned Rolland and at tries to get the Welsh press to move on from it.Shortly after the red card he even admitted that Rolland had little choice but to red card him.What annoys me is that fans crib about a ref applying the laws of the game as they are written with the line ”Ohhh he should have left it off as its not in the spirit of the game” .Rolland is the world’s best and the game will be less for his absence
It was a red card all day..
Yup and the 6 week ban he received proved that Roland was correct to send him off.
What some of the more fanatical (oh lets admit it – all) Welsh fans failed to comprehend is that referees were under strict instructions in the WC to red-card tip-tackles without any exceptions and we’ve seen in subsequent years how this is now standard practice in the game – tip-tackle a player and you standard a very good chance of being red-carded … and that’s a good rule.
A link to video of the incident would be a useful addition to the story :-)
There was nothing controversial about it, dump tackle = red card.
Correct decision by the letter of the law.
Correct decision by the spirit of the law.
Reward: Pienaar gets the world cup final and gives the worst refereeing performance I have ever seen(short of the Italy, Korea game in the 2002 WC).
No action was taken against Gatland at the time or since.
It’s creeping into the game. Past Irish managers, their assistants and players have done it as well.
When I first saw it in real time I though yellow but on the reply it was more red then yellow. Rolland also had the best seat in the house for taking that decision.
Warburton is a class act..Since the incident he has never once von