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Freddie Steward: I did not think I was in trouble – TMOs should make red card calls

Freddie Steward - Freddie Steward: I still didn’t I'd get sent off – TMOs should make red card calls - Getty Images/Clive Rose
Freddie Steward - Freddie Steward: I still didn’t I'd get sent off – TMOs should make red card calls - Getty Images/Clive Rose

Freddie Steward remains mystified by his controversial sending off against Ireland and has backed a proposal that would allow Television Match Officials to adjudicate on borderline red card decisions during a sin-bin period.

The England full-back was sent off just before halftime of the 29-16 Six Nations defeat to Ireland after a high speed collision with opposite number Hugo Keenan, who stooped to pick up a bouncing ball just in front of Steward. With next to no time to react, Steward turned his body to brace for impact with his elbow making contact with the head of Keenan, who did not return from a Head Injury Assessment.

Steward told Telegraph Sport that he did not even realise that he was in trouble until referee Jaco Peyper called for the Television Match Official and even then did not believe that he would be sent off.

Telegraph Sport revealed on Sunday that World Rugby are considering a proposal that would allow the officials to allow a separate TMO to effectively upgrade a yellow card to a red while play continues.

Not only does Steward believe that would take the pressure out of a referee making a tight decision in front of a live crowd but he says it would speed up the game.

“When an incident like that happens it takes a lot of time to make the decision,” Steward said. “There’s the time watching it back and forth in front of the crowd, the play stops so the players have to huddle up. Something like that where you take all the noise out of it and give it to the TMO while play continues, I think that’s a really good idea.”

Steward has stayed off social media since the red card which is just as well considering how divisive the debate has become. While Steward has every sympathy for the officials in the middle, it was telling that they only used one real-time replay in their decision, relying instead upon multiple slow-motion replays that amplified the offence exponentially. In real time, Steward had a third of a second to react from the moment that Keenan picked up the loose ball that was still live.

'It felt like I had let down the lads'

“It happened so fast,” Steward said. “The ball was knocked on and then regathered very, very close to me. It was just an incident where I braced for impact at the last second and unfortunately there was contact with the head and the ref deemed it a red card.

“It is very instinctive. When you play things like that in slow motion, it looks like you have all the time in the world to change your position and move out the way. In real time, things are happening so fast that when two players are coming towards each other at that speed you are very much on autopilot. I suppose that is what cost me in the end, just that natural instinct to turn and brace for impact was the thing that got me sent off.

“It was not nice to have to walk off, particularly at that point in the game. It felt like I had let down the lads.”

The red card has since been downgraded to a yellow card at a disciplinary hearing meaning that Steward was free to play for Leicester Tigers again. Naturally he was subject to 24 hours of good-natured abuse when he returned to the club.

'I still did not think I was going to be sent off'

Yet even now he is not sure what else he could have done differently in the circumstances. Asked when he realised that he might be in trouble, Steward said: “Not until it went to TMO really.

Obviously it was a big impact and Hugo went down. I went to check on him. When they went to the big screen and you see it in slow motion it looks pretty bad and then things start to run through your head.

“You are pulled into a team huddle and you are obviously trying not to think about that but that is pretty hard to not do that in a Test match when you have a big screen in the corner and you have the crowd baying.

I think when they started looking at it, the climate of the game with decisions around the head contact I was getting nervous. I still did not think I was going to be sent off but that was the decision the referee came to.”

His biggest relief was to escape a ban that will allow him to play in Leicester Tigers’ Champions Cup last 16 match against Edinburgh at the Mattioli Woods Welford Road Stadium. That could be followed by a return to the Aviva Stadium next week for a potential quarter-final against Leinster.

“That was the thing that was getting me down,” Steward said. “With these big games coming up for Tigers at the moment, every game really matters. I am so relieved.

Freddie Steward - Freddie Steward: I still don't get why I was sent off – TMOs should make red card calls - PA/Joe Giddens
Freddie Steward - Freddie Steward: I still don't get why I was sent off – TMOs should make red card calls - PA/Joe Giddens

“The European competition is one of the best in the world. Besides the World Cup, it is the one players want to win. It is massively important for this club in particular when you look at the history and the great teams who went far. We ended up in the quarters last year and we would love to go on a European run.”

Leicester could field an all-England back three next season after confirming the signing of Ollie Hassell-Collins, although Anthony Watson’s future remains uncertain.

The Tigers also announced that they are re-signing Mike Brown, Steward’s predecessor in the England No 15 shirt. Originally brought in to cover his absence during the Six Nations, Steward has every intention of using the 37-year-old as a sounding board.

"He was in that England XV jersey as I was in my late stages with age-group and academy rugby,” Steward said. “He is a guy I have watched plenty of.

When he was at Quins, he was the one full-back I hated playing against because he is good at everything. He’s so well rounded, so solid defensively and in the air. I am really looking forward to picking his brains.”