Newcastle Falcons forward Tai Tuifua was fortunate to escape punishment for a dangerous hit he made on Wasps number ten Nicky Robinson last weekend. The officials at the time felt it was a legal tackle, and he hasn’t been cited as of yet.
Wasps fans were outraged at the tackle, which as mentioned in commentary, was fairly similar to one we saw from Chris Hala’ufia on Olly Morgan a while back. That resulted in a lengthy suspension, although Halu’Afia’s disciplinary record had a little something to do with that.
The tackle from Tuifua, who represented Samoa at Rugby World Cup in New Zealand recently, happened late in the game after he came on as a replacement, and it went unpunished.
Wasps number eight Billy Vunipola took exception to it, as did a few other players, as it appeared as though the head-on-head collision knocked Robinson out cold.
Wayne Barnes and his assistant felt that the only problem was the retaliation from Vunipola, so actually penalised him for it, and let Tuifua off, thinking that he would get cited if need be.
Many of you requested to see this again, or for the first time, so what do you think of the decision that was made? You can also view some other big hits and headclashes in the related posts.
Note: Thanks to Peter Dean for the great pics
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