Super Rugby: Sunwolves flanker Ed Quirk cops incredibly soft red card against Reds

A ROLLICKING 48-27 victory ended the Reds’ Super Rugby season in style but a code gone soft will lose fans by the droves without an urgent laws summit at World Rugby.

Sunwolves flanker Ed Quirk is sent off against the Reds on Friday night.

A ROLLICKING 48-27 victory ended the Reds season in style on Friday night but a code gone soft will lose fans by the droves without an urgent laws summit at World Rugby.

It was the Reds’ first six-win season since 2013 and the upbeat sign for the future is that the pack doing the damage had an average age of just 22 when skipper Scott Higginbotham departed early with a shoulder issue.

There have been wrong, harsh, disputed and fair refereeing decisions in big moments this season but nothing so blatantly soft as sub par Kiwi ref Ben O’Keeffe sending off Sunwolves backrower Ed Quirk to ruin another game.

Hamish Stewart barrels into the Sunwolves defence. Picture: Getty.

The Reds had scraped well to put on an 8-0 spurt when down to 14 men, with Duncan Paia’aua in the sin bin, to lead 22-13 late in the first half.

Quirk’s red card.

Looks VERY closely. Maybe zoom in too..#REDvSUN pic.twitter.com/3Dt9oYvvza

— Steve Lenthall (@steve_l15) July 13, 2018

Quirk did what any combative flanker should do when he gets his mitts on a rookie 20-year-old flyhalf like Hamish Stewart on the ground... he wrestled him a little and nuzzled a marshmallow right fist on the side of his face with all the force of a dog licking your face.

O’Keeffe and TMO Damien Mitchelmore concocted a red card from THAT!

Helping the aged to the toilet at a retirement village is becoming more physical than rugby and people are switching off their TV sets.

The contest was over at that point and clinically dead when prop Taniela Tupou bulldozed over on halftime for 29-13 at Suncorp Stadium.

Reds coach Brad Thorn was exasperated over the red card he called no more than “a love tap.”

“Maybe I’m just a relic but it’s got to be severe for a red card, eye gouging, a spear tackle,” Thorn said.

“People don’t want to see the contest ruined.”

Sunwolves coach Tony Brown wondered openly where rugby is heading with such illogical red card calls.

LIVE stream the 2018 Super Rugby season on FOX SPORTS. SIGN UP NOW >

Sunwolves flanker Ed Quirk after being sent off. Picture: Getty

“Every rugby player who has ever played the game is looking at that and saying it’s not a red card,” Brown said.

“I’m worried 100 per cent (where refereeing is heading) and why are refs having such control.

“It has just got bizarre.”

Brown was dismayed at O’Keeffe’s onfield reasoning that he had “no other choice” with the clenched Quirk fist.

“The refs are almost looking to be in the media, being the guy that does it,” Brown said.

“‘I’ve got no other option’...what a load of crap. It’s just embarrassing.”

The Reds revelled with four tries against depleted opposition and seven in all but it will still translate to 13th in Super Rugby.

Replacement halfback Moses Sorovi dummied and scooted 15m for a try, Jono Lance straightened, dummied and ran 35m for his and France bound Eto Nabuli signed off with two.

Wow..........................

— Quade Cooper (@QuadeCooper) July 13, 2018

So soft. @WorldRugby ur a joke for empowering laws that makes a marshmallow fist leaning on a face a red card. Red faces. #Quirky #REDvSUN

— Jim Tucker (@HulaBulaJim) July 13, 2018

Nobody in rugby knows what constitutes a penalty, a yellow card or a send-off anymore. It’s all a lottery. And a joke. @WorldRugby

— Jamie Pandaram (@JamiePandaram) July 13, 2018

Ed Quirk red card is a result of refs bosses rewarding officials for rigidly ticking boxes, not applying common sense. System gone mad.

— Iain Payten (@iainpayten) July 13, 2018

The other law that World Rugby must unknot before the World Cup is the ridiculous double penalty.

Paia’aua’s reflex action to desperately grab at a pass from Sunwolves centre Michael Little was judged a yellow card for a deliberate knock down but it compounded into a seven point penalty try call as well.

Way too heavyhanded on one act.

On the upside, prop JP Smith had a superb game.

His scrummaging this season has been first class but on Friday night, he was putting on a right foot sidestep and running 40m plus spinning slick passes from the ruckbase.

Stewart looked more relaxed and sharp while he was on, including the shortside raid for the Liam Wright try after five minutes that showed that the Reds meant to avenge their 63-28 calamity in Tokyo in May.

Lock Izack Rodda was impressive again and a front on tackle on Sunwolves forward Michael Leitch, with a 20m run up, was expert to stop him in his tracks.

Departing legend George Smith didn’t play because of a knee injury but he still scored one of the biggest roars of the night from the crowd of 11,057 when his face was flashed on the giant screens at Suncorp Stadium.

Lance was voted the Frank Ivory Medallist as man of the match, a fine award to acknowledge the first Indigenous player to wear the Queensland jersey.

Moses Sorovi reaches out to score for the Reds. Picture: Getty

Lance’s best play will be missed, now he heads to English club Worcester, because there is no cool, organising head in the squad to offer support to Stewart who will have the reins to himself next season.

A 20 minute cameo debut for 2.04m lock Angus Blyth continued coach Brad Thorn’s Generation Next policy right until the final game for another 20-year-old.

QUEENSLAND REDS 48 (Eto Nabuli 2, Jono Lance, Duncan Paia’aua, Moses Sorovi, Taniela Tupou, Liam Wright tries Lance 5 cons pen) SUNWOLVES 27 (1 penalty try) (Jaba Bregvadze, Ryoto Nakamura tries Hayden Parker 2 cons 2 pens) at Suncorp Stadium. Referee: Ben O’Keeffe.

Originally published as Super Rugby: Sunwolves flanker Ed Quirk cops incredibly soft red card against Reds