FBI wrote:The Ospreys will surely appeal. Byrne's ban will hopefully be cut to one week making him available for the Six Nations opener. Afterall Dan Luger wasn't banned in 2003 for the same transgression against Samoa in the World Cup.
Dan Luger was ordered onto the pitch by the England physio. The physio was then banned for about 4 weeks I think.
The fine is fair enough, but 2 weeks for Byrne seems a bit convenient.
Of interest is this line from the ERC statement:
Lee Byrne, the Ospreys and ERC have the right to appeal.
Have they applied sanctions against their own staff?
icemanburt wrote:Bill, do you really expect any discipline of the ref will be made public? The only way we will know is when all he gets are NL1 games
I believe that, in due course, a longer account of proceedings will be made public? In that, surely, the panel will have discussed why he did not award a penalty? There is no mention of the supposed 'Leicester had 16 players too' rumour, so one is left wondering what Lewis had to say.
I think that we should leave it there now. £25k is a blow to Ospreys despite what some are saying. They broke the rules momentarily, deserved to be punished and now have been. Whether deliberately or not, Lee Byrne broke the rules and has quite rightly been banned. The rules are there for a reason and they have been broken.
I think a fine is the best we could hope for, the possibility of a replay never really existed IMHO. I await the news of the punishment for the referee and match officials for not knowing the rules of a game when so much was a at stake. The decision not to award a deserved penalty for the Osprey's misdemeanour was the real crime as far as i'm concerned.
icemanburt wrote:Bill, do you really expect any discipline of the ref will be made public? The only way we will know is when all he gets are NL1 games
Disciplining of the officials is unlikely to be made public. However, any comments the disciplinary panel make in regard to the efficacy of their decisions will be published in the trascript of the hearing.
Tircoeds wrote:25K euros ... roughly £22K ?, 1,000 fans at the liberty from Leicester, average price ticket around £20, do the maths, who has paid for the fine ?
Though I have to say I am glad this is over ... it is over isn't it ?
One hopes, Tircoeds, one hopes.
Let us all hope ERC put their house in order.
I fear, however, that this is just a pebble on the beach with Tincu, Bloodgate, Dupuy, Attoub and now Byrne on it.
Seems fair to me, and also nice to see ERC dealing with it relatively quickly (for them anyway). At least everyone can move on now and focus on winning the double!
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