I was watching the 5-10 Glasgow Warriors play the 5-10 Dragons in the Pro14 League of European Rugby today.
About half way through the match, there was a scrum near whatever the goal line is called. All of a sudden, one of the players grabbed the shorts of an opposing player and pulled them all the way down to his knees. The player with no shorts continued his drive and apparently either didn't notice or didn't care about his predicament, and didn't pull up his shorts until there was a pause in play.
I don't know what ESPN+ was supposed to do, I got to see a rugby player's full bare ass for about 8 seconds. What was the other player's penalty for such shenanigans? I believe he was given a yellow card for yanking down another dude's trousers.
I love rugby, but I still don't get the nuances of the rules of rugby. In the second half of the same game, it appeared someone put a forearm into Richard Hibbard's face. Play was stopped as 2 guys with orange vests ran onto the field and appeared to give him medical treatment to his jaw area. The guys in the orange vests ran off the field and play continued. I don't even think a penalty was called.
In the end, the Dragons beat Glasgow 26-17. I'm telling you, if Hibbard was an American who played football or was a wrestler, he'd be a household name.
To me, rugby has the toughest players of any team sport. It's like UFC with a ball rolling around. I still can't figure out when you can hit a guy, can't hit a guy, or if pulling a guy's pants down is part of the gamesmanship.
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