Referee Karl Dickson's decision not to issue a card to Saracens winger Sean Maitland for his mid-air clattering of Northampton Saints' George Furbank in the first minute of the Gallagher Premiership semi-final has come in for criticism.
Saints full-back Furbank went up to take the high ball but was clattered in mid-air by Maitland, who appeared to also make elbow contact with his opponent's face.
There was plenty of chat between referee Dickson and TMO Stuart Terheege before they came to the conclusion that there would be no punishment in the shape of a card for the Sarries man, only a penalty on review.
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Former England fly-half Paul Grayson, on BBC Radio commentary duties, said: "OK, it's the first minute of a semi-final, but clearly Sean Maitland, absolutely fired up ready for his first aerial contest, gets it absolutely, totally and utterly wrong. Never even looked at the ball, flying mid-air collision knee to the chest to George Furbank and the referee for whatever reason decided 'no case to answer, play on'.
"It doesn't matter what camp you're in with the red card thing, 'red cards ruin games' and all that, that was just an act of foul play that should have been punished with something more than a penalty.
"Would it have material impact on the game? Yeah, it might have, who knows? But if you don't officiate it properly when the mechanisms are there to make sure that stuff like that is referred and looked at, what's the point in having it?"
After a penalty was awarded to Saints, they went through the phases near the Saracens line but ultimately lost the ball. Alex Goode then led a counter-attack from behind his own line before moving through to Maitland and Max Malins, but Alex Lozowski couldn't quite finish it off and Northampton turned the ball over.
However, it didn't take long for Saracens to open the scoring, with none other than Maitland crossing for his first of two tries after six minutes to give his side an early lead.
Sarries led 21-3 at half-time, with the fixture ending 38-15 for the London side to make it to the Gallagher Premiership final in a fortnight.
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