The red card against the second row of US Carcassonne, Romain Manchia, as well as the two previous yellow cards, inevitably weighed in the balance at money time.
Let's admit it right away, this Aude derby between Carcassonne and Narbonne will certainly not remain engraved in the Rugby annals… nor will the arbitration of Mr. Caballero whose decisions will certainly have weighed heavily on extremely balanced debates. . Two yellow cards (50e70e) inflicted on Clément Égiziano, then on Raphaël Carbou, and finally a red (73e) drawn by the man in green against Romain Manchia, will have finally tipped the scales in favor of the visitors. Visitors who certainly deserved no more than the locals. Especially since despite being reduced in numerical inferiority for almost thirty minutes, the Carcassonnais were in fact never really going to suffer.
In the heat of the moment, at a post-match press conference, questioned about the refereeing performance, the Carcassonne coach launched a laconic statement: “No opinion on tonight’s refereeing, the referees are always right”. Before a few minutes later changing his mind and being a little more talkative. “It was a night where the penalties weren't going our way. We take a red on a player who falls. A red that I find rushed in the sanction. We have the same thing on Raphaël Carbou… We get caught high also, with elbow forward. It could be a sanction for us. Ultimately Raphaël Carbou falls KO, and yet it is he who takes a yellow. This is the side today where we are not in the right spiral. The coin never drops at our house. That's how it is. But we have to reverse that.”
