THERE has always been a very fine line between a defending player making a genuine attempt to intercept a pass and one motivated solely by a desire to prevent the opposition scoring. The consequent yellow card is what’s known in the trade as ‘taking a hit for the team’ except that sometimes the ‘hit’ doesn’t extend beyond conceding a penalty.
Last week’s Champions Cup semi-finals provided glaring examples of Test referees reacting to the same offence differently. Peter O’Mahony and Robbie Henshaw took the same illegal option in defence of thei...