It was a cold and rainy night. Something nefarious was happening in a ruck and Brendan Cannon had had enough!
He wasn't going to stand for it anymore, and anyway who could miss that nose?
So he flattened it just a bit more and started an all-in-brawl in the process.
This cold and rainy place was of course Wellington. The event was of course Bledisloe '04 #1. The nose was of course Keven Mealamu's.
And as I watched the replay - and acknowledged that it was as fine a smack in the snoze as I had seen in a long while - I said to Cone Stadium in general "He won't be playing next week!"
Jules immediately suggested that since he just been awarded a yellow card, that he couldn't be sited.
Although I blustered a bit, I had to agree (quietly to myself) that he had a very good point.
In the recent past, this was the way things had gone. Siting committees had invariably ruled that the referee had dealt with the matter - so that... was that.
(Of course the more astute of you will agree with the literal truth of my statement, since there was no 3N fixture for Australia the following week.)
However when the IRB Siting official filed his report, he included mention of one Brendan (Meat-axe) Cannon on the charge of striking.
Thus BC was subsequently heard by a committee of learned people who gave him 2 weeks off rugby to consider just how sweetly he had smited his foe.
And when I heard about that decision I thought, "What the hey?"
"That's it!" I said to my self. "No more will I stand for this!"
And had there been a convenient nose around, things might have been much different.
But there wasn't, so I was forced into more drastic action!
I surfed to the IRB website and downloaded 'The Laws of the game of Rugby Union' as framed by the International Rugby Board (2004 Edition).
Never before had I been driven to this length, and once again I was happy to have my work connection to download it, as the PDF file is a weighty 974 KB!
Surely this would enable me to know what the hell was going on - when and for what was a yellow card enough?
The answer distilled from this full and factual work is - Don't know!
There probably is something written down somewhere, but it ain't here.
Bit of an over-sight you might think, but then these are the rules for the whole game, at all levels - with appendices for Sevens and Under 19.
And strictly speaking, the siting committee hasn't got anything to do with the running of a game.
So the question is still open - and Brendan Cannon still needs a hair cut!
