Yeah I have, several times and it's still pretty clear in my mind that it was an accident. It looks incredibly bad slowed down, as do all those tackles, but at full speed then you can see how it happened and it was pretty unintentional.
Outrageous, yes. Accidental, yes.
Happens quite a bit. The most effective way of tackling is to lift a person's leg off the ground so that they have less power, and quite often you'll see people do this and try to dump the ball-carrier on their back. Now, they get into trouble when the tackler gets low and drives up into the ball-carrier aswell as lifting the leg, or when another person becomes involved in the tackle and also lifts the leg. Really it's just the outcome of good tackling technique that has gone wrong.
The point is what they did was illegal. A ruck was formed so they should've been bound to their own players. The fact that they lifted BOD up & then slammed him down shows they weren't, regardless of intent.
Let's be serious though, you could award a penalty at every ruck, and I mean every ruck, if the referee was pedantic enough to do so. Yes I think a penalty should've been awarded, and some sort of punishment happen on the field (yellow cards), can't remember if they were brought out though. Also, how often do you see players blowing the opposition of the ball and not being bound to their own players? Almost every ruck. It was an unfortunate accident, but I do beleive it deserved punishment, as do all tackles or clean-outs that end like that, regardless of intent.
Yeah, very possibly, but there's clear water between technical offences like holding onto the ball or using hands in the ruck & violent ones like this was.
I still beleive it was accidental, but it did deserve more punishment than it got.
