Players must keep a licence to thrill

IF, God forbid, I ever find myself in the dock I will be hiring Sam Warburton KC to defend me

- BRENDAN GALLAGHER

The man, uniquely in my experience, who could sweet talk referees into changing their decisions and who last Saturday gave a perfectly sensible explanation down at Parc y Strade as to why referee Mathieu Raynal was correct in not awarding Scarlets a penalty try and why Glasgow’s Ollie Smith did not deserve a yellow card for a deliberate knock on.

It was Warburton, of course, who saved the day for the Lions in the last minute of the decisive Test in 2017 when, to most eyes, Ken Owens appeared to have coughed up a penalty for being offside at the restart after a Lions player knocked the ball forward.

Romain Poite signalled a penalty, but Warbuton KC went to work arguing it was purely accidental and it was within Poite’s gift to award a simple knock on. I’ve never been totally convinced of that but what Warburton effectively did – after an absolutely blameless career at the coal face and years of treating referees, opposition and media with respect and politeness – was to somehow subliminally suggest that this wonderful series really didn’t deserve to be decided like this. This is, of course, what many great lawyers do when arguing their clients’ case in front of a jury.

Warburton’s calm dissection, on TV, of the non penalty try at Parc y Stade was instructive and I suspect an eye opener for some.

His first pertinent point is that nowhere in rugby’s laws does it outlaw going to catch a ball one handed although this is frequently and wrongly cited in some leagues, notably the Premiership, as almost automatic evidence of guilt. This is a myth and needs debunking.