Mr Fourex
International Rep
Contributor
- Apr 9, 2012
- 12,369
- 14,034
It looked a different tackle to me.....Pats being worse.To be honest they are different. Although the mechanisms were basically the same, Smith was the first man to make contact - Patty came in with force when 2 players already had Hastings held up.
Patty should’ve just done enough to throw him off balance and put him down instead of essentially dropping his body weight on the back of the knees.
Smith went for the hips, swung and landed on the back of the knees and then the 2nd defender came in. Smith couldn’t have reasonably done more to avoid that without just not completing the tackle where as Patty, while still accidentalcould have shown more regard for safety.
I don’t think the difference is as severe as 4 games suspension v 0. Whether Patty should’ve got less or Smith more I’m uncertain but if I had to quantify it I would say Patty’s is about 2 games worse than whatever Smith got.
An analogy would be Smith aquaplaning into a person despite driving to the conditions while Patty did the same but was going 10km over the speed limit.