Jaco Peyper’s decision to controversially red card England’s Freddie Steward during the first half of the Six Nations title decider against Ireland had former and current players fuming.
Steward was sent off towards the end of the first half of the final Six Nations clash of the season after a collision with Ireland’s Hugo Keenan, that resulted in the fullback suffering a concussion.
Red card for Freddie Steward pic.twitter.com/N6nVNx2qQN
— RugbyLAD (@RugbyLAD7) March 18, 2023
While the contact appeared to be accidental and Steward tried to avoid colliding with his opposite number, Peyper still decided to brandish a red card.
In the immediate wake of the decision, former and current England players, and even cricketer Ben Stokes, took to social media to voice their displeasure.
Poll: Did Peyper get it right?
Steward had a split second to react – after a knock on – to a man running at him. Of course his instinct should be to make himself as vulnerable as possible – there was no intent – he was protecting himself – what a bloody joke
— Will Carling (@willcarling) March 18, 2023
Anyone trying to defend that red card decision at the half time break is just trying to look after them selves
— Ben Stokes (@benstokes38) March 18, 2023
Anyone who thinks that was a red card has never played rugby. If steward didn’t pull out it would have been much worse for Keenan. Yellow at worse. A forward pass, bouncing ball and split second decision which steward did the right thing and pulled out. ??♂️??♂️
— Ben Foden (@ben_foden) March 18, 2023
Ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous. In fact it’s complete and utter bollocks.
— Joe Marler (@JoeMarler) March 18, 2023
Absolute shambles ??
— Jonathan Joseph (@Jonathanjoseph0) March 18, 2023
A red card for that ?
— Jason Tovey (@jtov10) March 18, 2023
Bad call IMO – genuinely think it’s a rugby incident. ??♂️ #SixNations
— Ugo Monye (@ugomonye) March 18, 2023
Not one to tweet usually!!
That has to be one of the worst decisions I’ve seen in a long time.
How is that a red?
The game has lost all common sense.— James Cronin (@jcronin1990) March 18, 2023
Absolutely ridiculous!!!!
That was a Yellow card at best.— Jason Robinson (@Jason15Robinson) March 18, 2023
Poll: Did Peyper get it right?
Photo: Brian Lawless/PA Images via Getty Images