The red card officials missed that has rugby fans outraged

Fans were outraged online that this was missed by the officials.

Ireland hosted Italy at the Aviva Stadium for the third round of the Six Nations. Ireland came out 51 point winners in the end with a scoreline 57-6. However, many would say that this was a strange game.

Without a doubt a pivotal moment in the game was the red card shown to substitute Italian hooker Epalahame Faiva after 19 minutes of play. However, this red card had more drastic effects on the Italian chances than expected.

RED Card for Italy.
Second Half still to go. Hang in there Italy. #GuinessSixNations #SixNations #IREvITA #Ireland #Italy #shouldertoshoulder #redcard pic.twitter.com/OP8iaDDW6V

— Aaron's_Motorsport (@NoadeAaron) February 27, 2022

One law which is not often seen, was forced to be applied by Georgian Referee Nika Amashukeli, which caused a lot of confusion, especially for casual rugby fans.
With starting hooker Lucchesi having to leave the field due to injury after 9 minutes, he was replaced by Faiva. Faivas’ red card meant that there was no other player qualified on the field to play in the front row. So, in accordance with the laws, a substitute prop was brought onto the field for the game to restart with uncontested scrums. However law 3.20 means that the team without any more suitable front row replacements must lose another player so that the non offending team do not lose their advantage with the scrums being uncontested. Italy, instead of having to play with 14 men, were forced to play with 13.

RED CARD ITALY 🟥

Sub Hame Faiva sent off and, with the starting hooker already injured, Italy now have to play with only 13 men pic.twitter.com/I1xtAICSWJ

— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) February 27, 2022

Here's the World Rugby guide re. uncontested scrums.

First event = contact injury
Second event = red card.

Italy down to 13.

Mad one. pic.twitter.com/vPPPcO5pT2

— Murray Kinsella (@Murray_Kinsella) February 27, 2022

Without a doubt this moment cast a shadow over the entire fixture and result. This moment caused enough debate online in itself, However another moment which hadn’t received as much attention occurred much later in the game. Check out the moment below.

I just keep wondering why the TMO failed to make the ref assess this hit.
Surely inconsistent given the previous decision in the same match.#IREvITA #GuinnessSixNations #SixNations #SeiNazioni pic.twitter.com/0M4X6QZZR6

— Italian Rugby Players Abroad (@italiansrugby) February 27, 2022

Many fans questioned why this challenge by substitute lock for Ireland, Ryan Baird wasn’t looked at by the officials. Many fans have noted how similar the challenge was to that of Faiva’s.

Saw this tackle live and thought ‘that’s a red’. They didn’t even show it again.

Where is the TMO for this?

Doesn’t change the outcome of the game but at least 14v12 for the last 10 makes it a bit fairer.

— Lloyd Davies (@lloyddavies789) February 28, 2022

Was a red card all day long, as was the clip above had it been picked up. The ruling is an attempt to solve an issue that nobody – absolutely nobody – has come up with a better solution for yet. The people saying “it’s a joke” would also have said what it prevents is a “joke”.

— BrunoH (@Bhughes27) February 28, 2022