Paul Willemse red card: Why was France lock sent off against Ireland in Six Nations?
France suffered a significant blow in the first half of their Six Nations opener against Ireland with lock Paul Willemse shown a red card.
Referee Karl Dickson sent the second rower off for a second yellow card after Willemse made direct contact with the head of Ireland prop Andrew Porter and No 8 Caelan Doris in two separate incidents.
The Porter incident came inside 10 minutes as Willemse misjudged a clearout. Having decided that the incident met the yellow card threshold after a quick review with television match official Ben Whitehouse, DicksonBut within the permitted eight minutes, the foul play review official ruled that the incident was not worthy of an upgrade, and Willemse returned.
