A carried ball that haunts Paris
While the Parisians were only one converted try away from an unexpected draw (15-22), they launched a final offensive following a throw-in near the Bordeaux goal line. On the scoreboard, the time had exceeded 80 minutes of play, and the tension was at its peak.
Strong in conquest, and in particular in touch, the Parisian alignment had managed to glean yet another ball, before starting a carried ball. However, while the latter got off to a good start, the second line of the UBB, Cyril Cazeaux, made a mistake.
The Bordeaux player was therefore sanctioned with a yellow card for having voluntarily collapsed the maul, but no additional sanction was indicated by the referee of the match, Pierre Brousset. Obviously, on the Parisian side, there was incomprehension, because in this area of the field, the referees do not hesitate to award a penalty try.
The manager of Stade Français, Laurent Labit, returned to this tense end to the match: “We had a lot of elements against us. We knew there was the pitch, the supporters. There were others that we had not identified. There is a very difficult decision at the end of the match not to award a penalty try on a maul.”
As a reminder, the hooker Peyresblanques ended up crossing the line a few moments later, but Joris Segond, off-centre from the poles, narrowly missed the target. Result, Bordeaux validated its ticket for the semi-finals, 22-20.
Mr. Referee explains
Questioned by Midi Olympique about this contentious action, Pierre Brousset, who is an international arbitrator, returned to the facts: “The Parisians’ maul saw an initial slight advance, then stopped at the 5m line. It is then that the collapse comes and it is this which triggers the second dynamic advance.
The latter continues : “For me, we are still too far from the line, around 4m, and it is not dynamic enough at the moment when he collapses to ensure that there would have been a try.”
After watching the sequence, with a clear head, it is true that Pierre Brousset’s defense seems coherent, and that everyone’s interpretation is possible on this action. In addition to this, the latter, who was selected during the last World Cup in France, also justified the yellow card inflicted on Cazeaux.
Such a sanction, in a scoring zone, is not always synonymous with a penalty attempt: “The two are not necessarily linked. The rule says that such a sanction must be applied if the fault prevents a try which would probably have been scored.”
After all, Pierre Brousset seems to have made the right decision!
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