Nathan Hines swinging arm on Lee Byrne

Bryne went down like a football player, should just have been a talking too in my book. One of the great things about rugby is that the rules impose themselves, if you lie on the wrong side of the ruck, you get a shoeing. If you go about pulling players back, you might get a thump. Simple as

"One of the great things about rugby is that the rules impose themselves, if you lie on the wrong side of the ruck, you get a shoeing."not anymore, they have taken that out of the game, hence why the whistle is blown a huge amount more now. in games at home the ref yells at us "watch your feet" and we can get a talking too. a serious grey area on what you can an cant do with your feet nowadays. i think its a great shame, players know this isnt a weak sport, if its clear to you that you will great a shoeing if you are on the wrong side you make sure you move pretty damn quick. I cant say i condone thumping other players but the referee wouldnt have talked to Byrnes about holding hines back so he could have got away with it all day. i say good on Hines in all honesty........but i swear he has got absolutely massive....was he always that big??!?!? (by big i mean muscley)

Second row the size of a house swats a pretty scrawny full back, all biceps and no brain got what he deserved. If he was holding it was pretty marginal.

spinning back fist, thinks its UFC hahai myself love the part of rugby that keeps players honest, they know stupid play will get them a swat or a boot, its much better than having the players going "oh sir hes on the wrong side" much as footballers do, rugby is a mans sport, and even with the new rules, i know refs tend to "miss" a few things involving players getting taken care of because of unusual playwouldnt surprise me if hes cited for this, seems every week a new player is gone for X amount of weeks, look at Flannery after the munster game, he retaliated after being held, same as HinesI was wondering about his size too, he must have bulked up alot since i last seen them play, has he switched teams and has a new trainer possibly?

bryne was pathetic it was a slap on the face but he made it so much more , this is starting to happen more often in rugby and i hate it

Yeah tis a bit of a shame, completly agree with you js. And as far as his size goes, the entire scotland team seem to have gotten huge.

HAHA i love it the way none of the welsh men step in to get revenge..... "hmmmm simon webster...maybe we would do something......nathan hines...HAH as if!!!"Got to agree with js.The anonymous that with the dumbass comment "all biceps and no brain got what he deserved." you obv dont have a clue. holding a player back is not right, you hold anyone back and you deserve what you get. and byrne should have known better obv he has a scrawny little brain to go with his scrawny self....why would anyone hold back a man that is probably 4 times the size of you!??

"No.7 said... HAHA i love it the way none of the welsh men step in to get revenge..... "They were too busy winning the game against an incredibly dull one dimensional Scotland side to get involved with slapping people.As to being able to clock someone everytime there's holding, games would turn into a free for all the time. There's always holding. Geez.

Hines lashed out when he was obviously gonna get spotted by the ref...Byrne did exaggerate anyway, so meh.dunno why people think Byrne is scrawny though, smaller than Hines but he's still about 6ft3 and 15stone..

In fairness if Hines lashed out with the back of his hand it would be very hard NOT to get knocked over. He's huge !!! I think any holding on by Byrne was marginal but this clip doesn't really show it. Stupid by Hines.Third Centre

rich w & js are right. the game is starting to change, i really hope rugby ain't gonna become like football where players schwalb

Wow how tough are you guys?Watch again from the angle at 1:21. Looks like a little more than a "swat".

Bryne dove onto the pitch like a footballer.

im not saying that everyone that holds on should get a slap, im saying that people should not hold on because this is what happens! and there should be stricter penalties for people holding on.and you cant say that you wouldnt bother stepping in to help out a mate whether you are winning or losing....all i know is that i would think way more than twice if it was Nathan Hines.

Agree with stricter penalties for holding on, got sent off for swotting away a feller holding me in a ruck in a pretty important match. 10 mins in the bin...

i totally agree with no.7

yeah well said 7. and i'd be man enough to admit if i took a backhand like that i think i would at LEAST be sent reeling a bit.

The game is clearly defined by the referees.... check out the major hands in the ruck by the prop immediately before the foul, this is commonplace among games at the higher levels, but it is shunned in the matches I play in the states, it's called every time. The referees are equally stringent on bridging, though it depends on the official. I feel that this was the right call. Rugby is a gentleman's sport, and there is no place for this type of conduct in any sport.

No 7 if he had any brains he wouldnt have done it in front of the referee and got 10 minutes. Just plain stupid.

Please, that hit was unneccesary, plain and simple.

Anonymous said... "No 7 if he had any brains he wouldnt have done it in front of the referee and got 10 minutes. Just plain stupid."So you are saying you know exactly where the referee is in every game you play (if you play) and that you can hear him everytime he says something during gameplay, and you have never been caught up in the heat of the moment?!?!?yeh i thought not. it obviously was illegal i dont question that, but tempers flare and Hines has a huge role to play in rucks, mauls and tackles, and to have some scrawny fullback clinging onto him must have irritated him. so i dont blame him!

6 nations: Martin Johnson played his whole career on the edge of legality and he wouldnt have done something as stupid. What is the do you play or dont play got to do with it? For the record yes I did play and of course tempers flare but at that moment in an international game clipping Byrne around the head was really stupid. You only have to look at Haddens reaction on the bench to see how pissed off he was.

I'll give you a hint, the do you play or dont you play refers to the fact that if you have never played you wont understand that the referee's position is not at the top of anyones list!and as for:"Martin Johnson played his whole career on the edge of legality and he wouldnt have done something as stupid"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH are you kidding me?!?!? im not being funny and i totally respect the guy as an awesome lock and leader but you cant say that strangling Corne Krige or the many other punches he has thrown during his lengthy career were an act of pure genius.andas far as frank haddens reaction, i dont blame him for being pissed off. all im saying is that i can relate to Hines frustration, yes what he did was wrong but in all honesty Byrne was asking for trouble and its quite clear YOU DONT HOLD ON TO PLAYERS!!! that was all im trying to say and in the heat of the moment and with tempers flaring here is a classic example of why you dont hold on to them!

totally got wot e deserved....i fink they shld bring bak bein alound to stand on people on the wrong side of rucks and e jst shldnt of been holdin him bak if e didnt want a slap! i would of given the penalty against Byrne for holding Hines then sin-binned Hines for acting and rolling around after! referees should let it get like football!

My god are the backs also turning in to socker players, yo burne the Italian FC is still looking from some method acting, (vomat)...

twas pretty soft

6 Nations yes but how often did Johnson get 10 minutes which is the point I am trying to make.

scotland spent about 2 months in the gym prior to the world cup hence the now massive guys you see.shame we couldnt have spent 2 months learning the basics of rugby....

"6 Nations yes but how often did Johnson get 10 minutes which is the point I am trying to make."Well i cant give you exact figures, due to the fact i really cant be arsed to argue and i also think Johnson is an awesome player so id rather not dig up the dirt, but more than once crops up in my mind. honestly i dont see what you have against hines.....he is a great player and it was a case of getting caught doing something which i guess is justice just a shame the ref saw....

Byrne was pathetic ... i wasnt such a nasty hit (specially after u see Julian White's punch on O'Kelly lol great vid! look for it on rugbydump)but anyway, yellow card was right, hines always gets this stupid penalties ... he wasnt held back that much .. byrne barely holded his shirt, although if u take byrne's overreaction to the punch, and add the reason why he got swang at, it makes this vid a pretty embarressing moment for the welsh fullback ... what a wuss

No.7 is a girl

The white o'kelly video is hilarious, white gave him a hell of a slap and it didnt move him. Big Mal must be made of concrete, white is just a no brained farmer who cant keep his fists down to actually play decent rugby.

Sending him to the bin is uncalled for. Maybe a free kick since its right infront of the ref, but not a man down for 10 minutes. The refs are changing the outcome of games when they do this rubbish. This sort should be settled on the field by the players.

Lee Byrne, is part of worrying trend. With rugby players beginning to act like footballers. Diving should be stamped out of rugby.
Plus Bryne preformed similar on field ballet 2 years later again, against scotland, in cardiff

well reffed, he has been warned before about srtiking in that game and even tohugh byrne went down abit softly but its still a penalty