The incident marred an otherwise encouraging 52-17 victory over Eddie Jones’ Japan that will likely force England head coach Steve Borthwick to call up another second row for the two Test matches against New Zealand. Maro Itoje and George Martin started in the second row against Japan with Northampton’s Alex Coles the only other specialist lock in the travelling party.
What was the incident?
Leading 45-17, England are attacking inside the Japan 22 with Ben Earl making a carry. Leitch gets in a position to jackal with a wide stance but does not attack the ball with Tom Roebuck already defending the ruck. Ewels comes in from the side to clear out Leitch, taking out his right leg. Referee Ramos only awards a penalty for side entry in real time but is quickly alerted to possible foul play by Eric Gauzins, the French Television Match Official. They quickly decided to show a yellow card to Ewels while referring the incident to the bunker where it is upgraded to red, deeming that it was “dangerous” with “no mitigation”.
Was it the right decision?
In real time it looks horrific. As much as World Rugby has worked hard to mitigate the number of concussions in matches, they have also been trying to protect jackallers by banning crocodile rolls. Former England second row Ben Kay, an analyst for RugbyPass TV, had no doubt that the officials made the right decision.
“People will watch it in slow motion and say ‘what’s he thinking?’” Kay said. “These situations happen a lot where you have to be physical to make a clearout. The reason it is a red card is that he is out of control. He is too low, his head is below his hips. When he goes in there, he is not expecting Michael Leitch’s leg to be in that position. You have to retain an element of control. Absolutely it’s a red card. It is the right decision, we have to look after players, particularly around the breakdown.”
Screenshots show that Leitch moved his leg as Ewels came in for the clearout making the incident look far worse. However, Ewels was always illegal coming in from the side and as Kay rightly says he was not in control of a missile like clearout that could easily have resulted in a broken leg for Ewels.