Nigel Owens and Jesse Kriel discuss the contentious Tom Curry situation.

The tackles made by Tom Curry and Jesse Kriel during the Rugby World Cup’s opening weekend were two particularly contentious incidents.

In his most recent episode of Whistle Watch on World Rugby’s social media channels, former Test referee Nigel Owens commented on the debate and offered his perspective on both incidents.

In addition, Owens discussed Fiji’s disallowed try and Will Jordan’s yellow card against France in the tournament’s first game.

Against Argentina, Tom Curry was dismissed.

When Curry tackled Juan Cruz Mallia of Argentina, referee Matthieu Raynal initially issued Curry a yellow card and then sent the incident to the Foul Play Review Bunker for review.

Curry received a three-match suspension, which can be reduced by one match by tackling a school, after The Bunker upgraded his yellow card to a red.
The disciplinary panel upheld the punishment.

“Now, do we have foul play?
You bet we do.
Yes, we have direct contact or contact with the head. Yes, we do have a high level of danger,” Owens said as he went through World Rugby’s head contact procedure.

Consequently, we have already received a red card after all that.

“So what occurs in this situation is that the Argentinean player leaps into the air.

Then he lowers himself, and Tom Curry makes contact with the Argentine player almost simultaneously with our head contact.

“Now, it all comes down to something as straightforward as this; if you [the referee] felt that Tom Curry was careless and he could have done something to prevent what happened, then we don’t have any mitigation, and we have a red card.
“.

Jack Dempsey was tackled by Jesse Kriel.

Owens focused on Kriel’s infamous tackle on Jack Dempsey early in South Africa’s 18-3 victory over Scotland, which went unpunished and was not cited.

According to the former World Rugby official, there was insufficient proof of head contact between Kriel and Dempsey for the TMO to intervene and notify the official.

The TMO will therefore be monitoring everything in the background as the game progresses. Just keep in mind that they have the Hawke-Eye system, which has all the various perspectives to examine specific game moments, said Owens, noting that they have angles that are not broadcast.

“The TMO is examining this and will then determine whether he needs to bring something to the referee to then put it up on the screen and officially look at it, or he feels “I can’t see anything wrong here,” in which case we won’t be showing the referee because there is nothing to show, and the game will continue.
“.

The fact that this tackle was not cited further indicates that all of the referees agreed it was not a serious enough offense to merit a red card.

Because the Citing Commissioner also has all the information, he added, “It’s important to note as well that it wasn’t cited.”.

“Therefore, there is agreement between the officials on and off the field.
He believes he lacks convincing evidence to demonstrate that there was actual head contact because the TMOs are continuously at work in the background.
Once more, it simply depends on your perspective.

“If you were to look at this and decide that there was head contact, we would then enter the head contact protocol and guidelines and most likely end up with a red card.

“Or if you look at this and decide, ‘Well, I can’t really see if it actually is head contact,’ and you don’t have evidence to say there was, then we don’t have foul play, and the game continues.

In the TMO’s opinion, there isn’t enough evidence to prove that there was head-on contact, which is why we continued to play.
“.