Too fast, too furious - rugby on dangerous ground

Robert Baloucoune's face said it all.

Partially hidden behind his hands, the Ulster wing, just minutes into their Champions Cup second-leg clash with Toulouse, winced as he looked up and saw Anthony Jelonch lying flat on the ground.

He prayed to the rugby gods and they were kind. They need not have been.

Baloucoune and his team-mates had plenty of recent examples to look back upon in those famous reviews.

You can imagine the cleaned-up version of the coach’s instruction. 'See that idiot? Don’t be that idiot’.

Juan Cruz Mallia had lasted just 11 minutes of the first leg for going in dangerously on a vulnerable Ben Moxham. The Argentine wing departed to let his 14 mates try to get something out of the game.

Moxham, meanwhile, left the field, his European adventure was over.

Dangerous tackles had been the hot-topic over the last couple of months.

Ireland twice played against teams in the Six Nations with 14 (or fewer) men after dangerous high tackles.

Connacht and Leinster met three times in the four weeks prior to this weekend and cards were scattered like confetti at a wedding.

Leinster wing Tommy O’Brien got a yellow for taking Niall Murray out in the air after just five seconds of their URC clash, while two minutes later Connacht centre Tom Daly saw red for shoulder to head tackle on Ciarán Frawley.

Here's Tom Daly's early red card Follow live updates: https://t.co/H1RxA2NRel #CONvLEI | #URC pic.twitter.com/jAdcpval0j

Leinster scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park was deemed lucky to only get sin-binned for contact with the head of Kieran Marmion seven minutes after coming on in their Champions Cup first leg.

Referee Karl Dickson said Gibson-Park stood stationary and "accepted the tackle" rather than going forward, somehow missing the