Welsh international Aled Davies has found himself at the centre of another controversial collision with one of the biggest names in the game.
Opinion was deeply divided last month when the 20-times capped Saracens scrum-half was handed a yellow card rather than a red one for head-on-head contact with England fly-half George Ford. You can read more about that here.
And it’s the same again now following a contentious incident involving Springboks superstar Faf de Klerk in Friday night’s Premiership clash between Sale and Sarries at the AJ Bell Stadium.
With 18 minutes on the clock, scrum-half De Klerk went to put in a clearing kick with Davies and prop Vincent Koch closing in on him. Just after the ball leaves his boot, the South African World Cup winner is hit by Davies in a big coming together and ends up dumped on the deck in touch.
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Commentating on BT Sport, former England star Austin Healey immediately made his feelings very clear. “I think Davies has gone for that challenge. I think it’s a head on head. It’s reckless. There’s no arm, is there?” he declared.
Giving his thoughts, fellow ex-English international Ben Kay said: “If there’s any head contact, he’s in big trouble Davies. He does get nudged by his own player as he’s going in there. That might be the only mitigation. He’s actually trying to pull out and Koch almost nudges him into De Klerk. The problem is he is already at a reckless speed. He’s in trouble here.”
It was then over to Pontypool-born referee Luke Pearce to make his judgement on the incident: “It is obviously late by No 9, I don’t think there’s a shadow of a doubt over that. His arms are down,
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