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Wales Online
Wales Online
Sport
Dylan James

Joe Marler's own team-mate punished for high tackle incident that left him bleeding in bizarre moment

Joe Marler's jaw is smashed by the shoulder of Leicester second-row Calum Green. It's a high tackle, seemingly a red card offence.

But referee Wayne Barnes' deliberations with TMO Tom Foley at Harlequins' Twickenham Stoop overruled any such sanction, instead penalising Marler's team-mate Alex Dombrandt for pushing him into contact.

On 35 minutes, loosehead prop Marler took the ball into contact with Dombrandt behind him helping to send him on his way, leading to Barnes' consultation with the television match official.

"Obviously you can’t push people into contact," the ref said while watching clips of the incident. "He [Dombrandt] accelerates that. That’s the offense isn’t it?

"It is a high tackle, but that’s all caused by Dombrandt. Dombrandt accelerates Marler into the contact, which means Green has got no chance to adjust anything. That’s a penalty against Dombrandt, isn’t it?"

He later told the captains: "The penalty is against Dombrandt, against Quins."

Harlequins went on to seal a 26-20 comeback win against table leaders Leicester Tigers, but Barnes' call was the subject of post-match debate, with some believing that Green was lucky to avoid being given his marching orders for the high tackle.

"Dombrandt didn’t do anything wrong!!", former Wales back-rower Andy Powell said on Twitter. "At the end of the day he should make a leg chop!! The game is getting ruined!!"

Another fan wrote: "How much do we think a one-handed shove is actually propelling Marler forwards? He hasn't changed body position or speed into impact in the slightest."

It was strange incident, with many arguing the Dombrandt push was negligible and that Green was likely to have made a high tackle anyway. Crucially, the only thing Barnes could be sure of was that Dombrandt's intervention did in fact contribute to the ugly outcome.

This is clearly something that World Rugby wants to start clamping down on. In the United Rugby Championship game between Sharks and Leinster, Thomas Du Toit pushed Bongi Mbonambi into contact, and the referee blew immediately, penalising Du Toit.

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