There's a rule about leading with the elbow/forearm. Mickey Mac's height doesn't come into it just like say, Rob Burrow's doesn't. The arm raised into the tackle - elbow/forearm makes contact with the head. Incidents are dealt with on a case by case basis and you know they are so don't be facetious to suit your point. We saw head high tackles in the game get penalty only - Sean O'Loughlin rightly so gets a red for a clothesline last season.
The crux of it is he switches ball carrying arms and then raises. If he uses the ball carrying arm and tucks in, theres no issue. Also if he uses an open hand there's no issue. You can't accuse Watts of raising the forearm and it simply becomes a case of unfortunate head placement. There is an element of that but you can't argue with the fact that the arm is raise. It's not a fend - a fend is with an open hand, not a bent arm raised.
I don't for a second believe Watts intended what he did and it was more of an instinctive reaction MM flying out, but as we see time and time again; there has to be a duty of care at all times to opposing players. Players are put in dangerous positions all the time and they are punished for it, two players in as many weeks were sin-binned for it. They've massively clamped down on it.
I'd certainly expect the Wigan player to be off if it was the other way round and I mean that genuinely.
secondstanza wrote:There's a rule about leading with the elbow/forearm. Mickey Mac's height doesn't come into it just like say, Rob Burrow's doesn't. The arm raised into the tackle - elbow/forearm makes contact with the head. Incidents are dealt with on a case by case basis and you know they are so don't be facetious to suit your point. We saw head high tackles in the game get penalty only - Sean O'Loughlin rightly so gets a red for a clothesline last season.
The crux of it is he switches ball carrying arms and then raises. If he uses the ball carrying arm and tucks in, theres no issue. Also if he uses an open hand there's no issue. You can't accuse Watts of raising the forearm and it simply becomes a case of unfortunate head placement. There is an element of that but you can't argue with the fact that the arm is raise. It's not a fend - a fend is with an open hand, not a bent arm raised.
I don't for a second believe Watts intended what he did and it was more of an instinctive reaction MM flying out, but as we see time and time again; there has to be a duty of care at all times to opposing players. Players are put in dangerous positions all the time and they are punished for it, two players in as many weeks were sin-binned for it. They've massively clamped down on it.
I'd certainly expect the Wigan player to be off if it was the other way round and I mean that genuinely.
A fair post, but I just can't agree. Purely accidental imo, and similar to what you say, if it was a Wigan player I wouldn't have expected them to be punished either. It wasn't premeditated, he didn't run in leading with the elbow, it was a last second reaction to a hit that he saw coming really late.
He doesn't switch ball carrying arm. Anybody who says that is chatting the biggest load of poop. He catches the ball in 2 hands and then tucks it under his right arm. There is no moving the ball from under his left, to under his right. No player in the league drives it in holding the ball in 2 hands so he has to put it somewhere! And he's not going to put it under his left cause it's a higher chance of McIlroum forcing the ball free. The argument about the ball switches hands is a joke.
Joined: Mar 15 2004 Posts: 374 Location: Dark side of the moon
Bad tackle technique from a player that was losing his head (literally),evasive action from watts and how come a lot of current and ex players are backing watts on this call?,because a misjustice has happened that's why!,
so basically wattsy has to leave his left arm hanging limp then.
it's opinions based upon the colour of glasses your wearing which is why i said whatever, but i've seen literally dozens of players and ex players agree with my opinion so im happy with my facetious point of view.
The only people I've seen agreeing with the sending off are those who've never played the game at any level. A number of pros have backed Watts on twitter.
McIlorum flew in and Watts had the awareness to adjust his feet meaning McIlorums head was on the wrong side, and collided with Watts elbow, which at the point of contact was tooked into his torso.
Fixed? No of course not. It was just a fkn dreadful decision.
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