By WYNNE GRAY
You have got to have some sympathy for Hurricanes rugby forward Inoke Afeaki when he fronts up to the judiciary today.
Sanzar rules say any player who picks up three yellow cards during the Super 12 automatically goes before a tribunal to assess whether he should be suspended.
There is
no argument that Afeaki has three cards, but he scarcely rates as a competition villain.
After getting his first yellow card in round two, he was cited for a punch the judiciary ruled worthy of just a card in round seven, and in the latest round was sinbinned when he collided with Brumbies forward Troy Jacques.
Referee Tappe Henning took advice from his touch judges, who saw no elbow from Afeaki but considered it an illegal tackle.
Slow-motion replays showed Afeaki could not get out of the way and collided with Jacques.
To bin him seemed as harsh as referee Wayne Erickson's decision to yellow-card Joeli Vidiri for a swinging arm when it appeared the Blues winger had made a legitimate tackle on a player who slipped.
There were other occasions in the latest round where officials seemed over-zealous.
Reds fullback Chris Latham and Blues lock Troy Flavell were both cautioned for tackles that were a shade late. There was nothing vicious in either - indeed it seemed Latham was trying to stop his momentum when he shouldered his opponent.
The duo were fortunate that they avoided the bin, while others appear to be "soft" victims in such a physical game as referees vary their criteria for sinbinning players.
Removing players temporarily for professional fouls is a good move, though how referees decide who is the offender in some mass pile-ups is remarkable.
Chresten Davis and Mark Connors at the weekend correctly suffered after their teams were warned for persistent offending.
However, it may be time for Sanzar officials to reconsider their approach about issuing cards for foul play.
In clear cases of skullduggery referees should act with either yellow or red messages. Otherwise they would do better to place the incidents on report.
That way teams would not suffer during a game for some debatable offence and it would allow assessors the time and video evidence later to determine any violation.
