Rugby:The International Rugby Board and Six Nations have issued a joint statement today giving their backing to English referee Wayne Barnes for his decision to issue a yellow card to Ireland flanker Stephen Ferris and award a penalty to Wales in last Sunday's game at the Aviva Stadium.
No further action was taken against Ferris after he was cited by independent citing commissioner Achille Reali of Italy following a hearing in London on Wednesday and he will line out at blindside flanker against France in Paris tomorrow night.
In the aftermath of Ferris’s hearing, Ireland manager Michael Kearney outlined the decision of the disciplinary hearing into the tackle on Ian Evans.
“While we understand and fully support the stance to stamp out dangerous tackles in the game to make it safe at all levels, the disciplinary panel itself felt that the decision to award a penalty was incorrect and we also felt that it was a fair and legitimate tackle by Stephen,” said Kearney in a statement issued by the IRFU.
Today’s joint statement from the IRB and Six Nations reads: “While an Independent Six Nations Disciplinary Panel did not ultimately uphold the citing, the IRB’s match officials performance review endorsed Barnes’s decision to award a penalty.
“On first viewing the panel could understand exactly how the match referee came to his decision. In dismissing the citing no criticism of the referee’s on field decision should be taken or inferred. It was only after careful and prolonged analysis of the dynamics of the contact, including slow motion and step by step viewing, that the committee was able to see the strength of the submissions made in favour of Stephen Ferris”.
