Manu Tuilagi deserves every punishment he gets after striking England winger Chris Ashton in the Aviva Premiership semi-final.
Tuilagi, who has since received a five-week ban, struck Ashton on the face with a trio of blows after the winger pushed him to the ground during the heated exchange in the first half of big free bet favourite Leicester’s 11-3 victory over Northampton.
The Tigers centre smashed a right fist into Ashton’s temple, which in slow motion, looked as though the England international had suffered whip-lash due to the force of the strike.
Despite only receiving a yellow card, Tuilagi should have been shown red. Ashton, who was also sin-binned for a push on the centre, shouldn't have reacted in the first place but there is no way Tuilagi can get away with an aggressive attack on a fellow professional.
Tuilagi will now miss the biggest game of his career, the Premiership final, after his horrific attack. He deserves it. He has been banned for five weeks because his actions cant be justified whether it was on a rugby field or not. It was an assault. In every day life, that would warrant an arrest for GBH and the 20-year-old can have no excuses.
Tuilagi’s international prospects could now be dashed after receiving a ban and his hopes of a call-up to the England squad for the World Cup could now under serious threat after his moment of madness. Tuilagi, the young player of the year and previously a bigfreebet favourite to make it to the World Cup, has been recognised for his impressive performances on the pitch for such a young age this season but his reputation will be seriously dented after the attack on Ashton.
The centre is still young and yet to mature as a professional but he should have enough common sense to know his actions were wrong and that there is no place on a rugby field, in such a big game and witnessed by a huge crowd, for fighting. The sport is naturally an aggressive game but nothing can condone violence of a sport field.
1 Comments:
Spoken like a true table-tennis champion, guestblogger!
As you point out, this is rugby, Manu's biggest (only?) sin is to have been caught by both the ref and the camera!
The disciplinary committee actually was going to impose a 10-week ban (~3 weeks per punch), but actually halved that to 5 weeks after reviewing evidence of Ashton's shoving.
Let's consider the blood-bin shall we? Isn't that a law that says: I (ref) did not see who punched you in the nose, so go get fixed up and be back in 15 mins or less.
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