23-05-2025
Watch: Sam Underhill escapes red card for head-on-head collision
'How has he not been sent off?' asked a supporter in the crowd behind the press box as Sam Underhill made his way across the touchline at Principality Stadium half an hour into the Challenge Cup final between Bath and Lyon.
As a mark of what had just occurred, the fan in question was wearing the black, blue and white of Underhill's team. The flanker was recently back from a suspension for a similar head clash during Bath's victory over Pau in the first knockout round of this tournament last month; a fact the same supporter highlighted.
That incident had brought a three-week ban, reduced to two on the basis of Underhill undertaking World Rugby's coaching intervention programme, commonly known as 'tackle school'. Underhill enrolling had been rather amusing in itself. He is among the most consistently imposing and technically excellent tacklers in the game.
The 28-year-old has, however, got his timing wrong a few times this season. He was yellow-carded 18 minutes into his return appearance against Newcastle Falcons and could count himself lucky here.
Having begun the match superbly, snaffling a jackal turnover and charging down Davit Niniashvili as well as tearing around in attack, Underhill was corner-flagging and stayed reasonably upright.
"You are very, very lucky..." 🗣️
Big moment in the first half as Sam Underhill was issued a yellow card for a head-on-head collision, rather than a straight red 🟨 #ChallengeCupRugby
— Premier Sports (@PremSportsTV) May 23, 2025
What saved him, according to the explanation of referee Hollie Davidson, was Niniashvili stepping back inside. Ronan O'Gara, the La Rochelle head coach who is never shy on voicing opinions, was seemingly unconvinced, posting 'Players (sic) safety' on X, accompanied by a couple of exploding head emojis and a monkey covering its eyes.
Davidson, who brandished red to Underhill in that Pau game, spared him on this occasion. Should the citing commissioner intervene over the coming days, the England man risks missing the Premiership play-offs, because the tackle school reduction will not be available to him and a sanction of at least three weeks would be forthcoming were he to be found guilty.
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