Scotland coach Gregor Townsend admitted that he had been perplexed by the decision not to upgrade the yellow card of the whirlwind of Mauvaka France in red after his whim on Ben White in their super on Saturday six nations confrontation.
France has found the title of the Six Nations for the first time in three years with a 35-16 victory against Scotland in Paris, the Blues turned out to be too strong at the end while three second half’s tests saw them win their second championship in the era Fabien Galkhie.
Although this categorical second half wave has seen them to adapt to the title, the first half was much closer and France only led 16-13 to the break thanks to the trial of Yoram Moefana.
They could also easily have followed and be reduced to 14 players if Tom Jordan refused the standing test and Hooker Mauvaka had been sent for the blatant header on White in the 20th minute.
Indeed, the sending of Mauvaka to the Sin Bac saw the tide starting to turn with Finn Russell in the process of making the resulting penalty at close range to make visitors work on the dashboard.
For Townsend, there was no justification behind the card’s unmisal level given that White “collided at the head”
“Well, the decision not to lift it on a red card was because there was no excessive force,” said Townsend.
“I am not sure that it is really the criteria of a non -compliant incident. It was clearly a non -compliant incident, it was after the whistle. So, if there was contact with the head and that it was intentional, it should not be to be seen with the force that was involved.
“I’m sorry for Ben White here, because he did nothing. He was first pushed to the ground, and a push is nothing in rugby, then he collided in the head, so I don’t know how it was not raised on a red card.
However, Townsend admitted that France was worthy of the winners of the title 2025.
“But that it has something to do with the final result, who knows, because France deserved victory, deserves to be a champion, it is a quality team,” he said.
“Even if we played very well this evening, France was the best team at the end.”
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