{"id":317053,"date":"2025-11-29T19:14:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T19:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/317053\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T19:14:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T19:14:09","slug":"leinster-get-away-with-murder-amid-referee-error-in-dragons-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/317053\/","title":{"rendered":"Leinster ‘get away with murder’ amid referee error in Dragons win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rugby fans were once again left baffled after Leinster somehow escaped sanction for a high shot in their United Rugby Championship clash with the Dragons.<\/p>\n

In the 75th minute of the game at Rodney Parade, the Welsh region were pressurising the Irish province\u2019s line looking to level matters.<\/p>\n

The Dragons<\/a> were 17-10 in arrears at the time but a converted try would have set up a thrilling finale.<\/p>\n

They thought they would be getting a helping hand when Leinster<\/a> forward Scott Penny\u2019s shoulder collided with the head of Levi Douglas.<\/p>\n

While Penny did wrap and Douglas was falling, it was a high degree of danger and there was plenty of force involved.<\/p>\n

Not even a penalty<\/p>\n

Many expected there to be some sort of sanction but referee Morne Ferreira did not even deem it to be worthy of a penalty.<\/p>\n

The game changed on that moment as the visitors cleared their lines and secured the victory a couple of minutes later through RG Snyman\u2019s try.<\/p>\n

It proved to be the big talking point from Friday\u2019s action after a November Test campaign which has seen some real inconsistency in the implementation of the laws.<\/p>\n

\u201cDragons captain and everyone watching rightly in shock as Scott Penny\u2019s high tackle is deemed not foul play,\u201d Irish presenter and journalist Will Slattery wrote on X, formerly Twitter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat on earth is going on with rugby at the moment? No match is safe from a game-altering foul play error.\u201d<\/p>\n

Officials got it wrong twice: Franco Mostert and Japan lock cleared but not Wales star after Erasmus and Jones fumed<\/a><\/p>\n

There is a certain irony that it was a South African official who made the call given that they were the most involved in the controversy.<\/p>\n

Lood de Jager and Franco Mostert were given permanent red cards for high shots against France and Italy respectively, but the latter had his rescinded.<\/p>\n

That caused an outcry in the Republic, but they were then fortunate a week later when Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu escaped a card when his should connected with the chest\/head area of Tommy O\u2019Brien.<\/p>\n

Disciplinary inconsistency<\/p>\n

This latest incident once again adds to the confusion over rugby\u2019s disciplinary process with fans, journalists, pundits, players and coaches unsure as to what will and won\u2019t be penalised.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can absolutely understand how Dragons capt is not only v confused about the lack of card for Scott Penny, but also that there is \u2018no foul play\u2019???\u201d another Irish journalist, Andy McGeady, wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cRugby is in a really bad place when it comes to how players, fans, and media can actually engage with its laws about head contact.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, South Africa writer Brenden Nel wrote: \u201cJust seen the Scott Penny \u2018tackle\u2019 \u2013 how that wasn\u2019t a red is beyond me. How that wasn\u2019t even considered \u2018foul play\u2019 is a joke. Rugby is really in trouble unless we get some clarity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another person added: \u201cLeinster got away with murder with that Scott Penny elbow being a non penalty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even Leinster supporters were confused with one writing: \u201cAs a Leinster man, have to say that was a scandalous decision. If it was other way round, I\u2019d have been screaming for a card. That it took the wind out of the sails of a potentially equalising score & a penalty that resulted in a win feels tainted. I understand the grievance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another observer added: \u201cWhat a farcical decision in the Leinster match after that Scott Penny tackle to the face. Should\u2019ve been a yellow and penalty try.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Seven-try Ulster power past Benetton while Leinster late show seals bonus-point win over Dragons<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rugby fans were once again left baffled after Leinster somehow escaped sanction for a high shot in their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,4027,818,6265,44,760,85,134441],"class_list":["post-317053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-dragons","tag-home-page","tag-leinster","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-united-rugby-championship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}