ALAIN Carminati has been suspended from rugby for 30 weeks after
having been sent off by Fred Howard eight minutes into the second half
of the Murrayfield international against Scotland on Saturday. The
23-year-old Beziers forward's ban will run into September.
Howard, English rugby's leading referee, had no hesitation in ordering
Carminati off after the flanker had stamped on the left side of John
Jeffrey's head as the Scot lay on the ground, trapped by others. The
attack was brutal and senseless.
Afterwards, Howard recounted how he saw Carminati's knee ''come up
almost to chest height'' before the boot came down on the defenceless
Scot. The referee's revulsion was unrestrained as he scrolled through
his vocabulary for adjectives to describe the incident. Never have I
heard a referee, whatever the level of the game, express such horror at
foul play.
Yet Carminati's ban is two weeks shorter than the penalty imposed on
Kevin Moseley, the Welsh forward whom the same English referee dismissed
during the Cardiff international against France last month. The
difference is inexplicable.
Moseley was suspended until the end of August. Carminati's ban runs up
to September 16, and because of it he will miss not only the remainder
his club's national championship fixtures and his country's
international against Ireland next month but also the French tour to
Australia.
Immediately after the match Jacques Fouroux, the French coach, was
severe in his criticism of Carminati. So was Albert Ferrasse, president
of the French Rugby Federation (FFR).
At the evening dinner Ferrasse, addressing the referee, said: ''You
did what you had to do. I thank you.'' To deal with Carminati's
dismissal a disciplinary hearing was convened by the Five Nations'
Championship committee at Edinburgh Airport yesterday morning. The venue
was for the convenience of both Carminati, who had an afternoon flight
to Toulouse, and Sir Ewart Bell, the former president of the Irish Rugby
Football Union who flew in from Belfast via London to chair the meeting.
It would have been held on Saturday if a flight had been available for
Sir Ewart.
As is the practice is such matters, the neutral chairman was joined by
a representative from each side in the match. Gordon Masson,
vice-president of the Scottish Rugby Union and one of the country's two
representatives on the international board, and Francis Senegas,
secretary general of the French Rugby Federation, sat in judgment with
Sir Ewart, and Bob Weighill, the championship secretary, was there as
well.
Carminati's reputation has caught up with him. When I first saw him
playing for the French Barbarians against Scotland four years ago I was
not alone in marking him down as one who had a temperament that could
land him in bother.
Nor had Carminati heeded the warning from Moseley's dismissal. It
ought to have been obvious to anyone but a recluse, and Howard even
whistled a reminder by penalising Damian Cronin when the Scottish lock
misused a boot early in the match.
Carminati was the sixteenth player to be sent off in major
international rugby, though only the second at Murrayfield. Colin Meads,
the New Zealand forward, was the first to be dismissed there. That was
in 1967, and he was only the second to go in nearly 100 years of
international rugby.
Such incidences, however, have increased in more recent times. All but
six of the 16 have been in the past 10 years, and Howard, though no
hanging judge, has dealt with three of them. As well as Moseley, the
Englishman dismissed David Codey, the Australian forward, in the Rotorua
match against Wales to decide third place in the world cup three years
ago.
Carminati is the third Frenchman to be sent off. Before him
Jean-Pierre Garuet had gone in the 1984 Paris match against Ireland and
then Alain Lorieux during the 1988 Test against Argentina in Velez.
More alarmingly, Saturday's instance was the fourth this season.
Before the Moseley case Brian Stirling, the Irish referee making his
international debut, sent off two Fijians, Tevita Vonolagi and Noa
Nadruku, in their Twickenham match against England.
Such a rise in the rate of dismissals can be interpreted as showing an
increase in foul play in international rugby, but that view has to be
taken in parallel with recognition that referees are more willing to
weed out the thugs.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article