STADE FRANCAIS FURTHER cemented their place in the Top 14 playoffs over the weekend after a hard-fought 28-19 win away to their neighbours Racing Metro.
But what made their victory even more impressive was that they were without captain Sergio Parisse for an hour, after he was sent off by Jerome Garces for taking a man out in the air.
Racing fullback Brice Dulin certainly fell awkwardly but what could Parisse have really done to avoid that? He jumped for the ball honestly, it seemed, and Dulin jumped into him.
For whatever reason, these incidents seem to happen regularly when Garces has the whistle. He famously sent off Jared Payne early on in Ulster’s home quarter-final against Saracens in 2013, which completely changed the game.
The way the rules are at the moment, the refs have very little leeway with those kinds of incidents but it is still an interesting debate.
Was Parisse right to be shown red, or do you think it was overly harsh?
Even when on the bench he didn’t get game time. The coach doesn’t like or trust him. Saturday once again showed just how wrong O’connor has been all season
O’Connor is just all wrong for Leinster.
He has a very big chance next season with Leinster during the World Cup, midfield won’t be as competitive so he should get a good run of matches.
Mark if Darcy doesn’t make the World Cup squad, he’ll play 12 with t’eo at 13. Then Madigan and sexton will be back so the midfield won’t be as easy to get into as you may think
That pop pass from O’Brien
Battle between him and Madigan for the 12 jersey next season.
It’s always to easy to see who coaches ‘just like/don’t like’. When Gopperth played badly it was ignored whereas when Madigan played mediocre or even if Reid played well decisions went against them.
It creates such a poisonous culture as some players start to feel entitled to spots and others feel it doesn’t matter how well they play they won’t get picked. Cody and Fergusson were masters at disregarding players identities and judging on match performance alone. MOC is such a stink manager.