In his first response at a press conference, Lyon manager Xavier Garbajosa sets the tone: “Referee decisions did not help us“. At the end of its defeat in Perpignan 28 to 21, the LOU questioned above all a decision of Jonathan Dufort. In the 17th minute of the match, the USAP scrum-half Tom Ecochard catches up and stops Lyon back Davit Niniashvili illegally.
Video arbitration is requested to judge the “foul play” from the Catalan. Does Tom Ecochard’s shoulder touch the face of the Lyonnais? The first tendency is towards a red card but the referee would finally consider that Niniashvili changes his trajectory (and ducks) and the usapiste only receives a yellow card.
If the match had gone better for LOU, the decision would probably have been forgotten, but the frustration of the defeat brought this fact of the match back to life. “We can discuss this yellow card again, comments Xavier Garbajosa, we are asked to pay attention to the safety of the players and it would be necessary to explain to me why this gesture only leads to a yellow card. I don’t know if this is the turning point of the match but there were a lot of other faults, we should review all that.”
At 15 against 14, the LOU takes two tries
In the aftermath, scrum-half Jean-Marc Doussain adds to it, not without having taken the prior precautions of “congratulate USAP who had a great game“but for number 9 of the LOU, Mr. Dufort’s decision is questionable:”We talk about the protection of the players, the video referee asks for a red card and he on the field decides on a yellow. Luckily it’s Tom Ecochard (Editor’s note: reference to the size of the scrum-half) because if it’s the USAP 8, Lemalu, I don’t even know if our full-back can still play rugby this evening. The referee’s decision is embarrassing, for me. We have all seen the same gesture, it is not controlled, it touches the head, with violence, there is no debate for me.”
The LOU plague after this arbitration decision which could have made him play for more than sixty minutes at 15 against 14. However, during the ten minutes in numerical superiority, following this temporary exclusion of Tom Ecochard, the LOU conceded two tries, that is to say twelve points.
For his part, David Marty, the USAP coach prefers to be ironic and not to fuel the controversy: “for me, there was not even a fault“, he says, laughing. “I don’t particularly want to be objective, it’s for all the times we haven’t been objective with the USAP so tonight I’m not going to be and I’m going to be satisfied with the result“.