If Super Rugby Pacific is serious about capitalizing on its early season momentum, then the on- and off-field officials must immediately get on the same page when it comes to the adjudication of foul play.
Monday's citing of Queensland Reds centre Hunter Paisami for head-on-head contact with Moana Pasifika's Lalomila Lalomila during Friday night's clash in Brisbane caught many off guard, given the on-field officials had deemed it worthy of not even a yellow card. Perhaps more surprising, however, was the Reds' decision not to challenge the charge at the judiciary a day later, resulting in a three-week for the Wallabies star.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Reds coach Les Kiss explained that call was more about timeliness and the preparation for his side's Round 3 clash with the Force, rather than the belief they did not have a worthwhile case to argue.
"It's unfortunate for us, we certainly feel for Hunter," Reds coach Les Kiss said Tuesday. "Our first thought was to protect Hunter, we were very happy with how the referees and the TMO and the on-field officials handled the matter.
"However these things go into the space it did; we considered a lot of things deep into the night, we asked for an extension about how we can approach this because we were keen to protect the situation and fight it.
"However time pressures just get on top of you, we probably didn't want to take the risk and go further with it; we just thought it was right to take the two weeks after Hunter does his tackle school and just work that way and move forward."
Paisami's suspension will be cut by a week once he attends "tackle school" as Kiss mentioned, though there is more than a touch of irony about the name of that caveat when you consider the question: What else could Paisami have done to avoid foul play with Moana Pasifika's Lalomila Lalomila?
The answer is very little, other than a slight change to the positioning of his head, which admittedly was on the wrong side of Lalomila.
What Paisami did do correctly, and is required to under the law, is bend at the hips; the problem was that in preparing to dive into the corner, Lalomila had also lowered his bodyheight, which also clearly contributed to the collision.
There is however no part of the head contact framework that dictates specifically where a defender must place his head.
Could Paisami's technique have been better? Absolutely.
But was it illegal under the law? No.
And the match officials, led by referee Paul Williams, recognized this. Williams in speaking with his assistants and Television Match Official while the incident was replayed on the big screen, said: "We're happy with that."
There is no doubting that this was an ugly collision, the kind that World Rugby wants to get out of the game at every level, but some six or so years since the global stewards first started to rule on head-on-head contact, it is no closer to securing any level of consistency on its adjudication.
Three years ago, Brumbies fullback Tom Banks clattered into Western Force winger Toni Pulu during a Super Rugby Pacific clash in Canberra. Banks was, under the laws, correctly sent from the field under the 20-minute red card law -- there was no off-field review at that time -- only for the decision to be overturned at the judiciary, and the Brumbies winger let off with a warning.
It is easy to understand then why fans might question Paisami's suspension when compared with the Banks incident, albeit from three years ago, particularly if you contrast the bodyheight of both players alongside one another.
Paisami was bent at the hips, Banks was not.
There is some validity to the argument that Paisami's technique was reckless. But given he had little more than a second to set himself for the tackle, the expectation of near perfect body position in every tackle they a player makes across the 80 minutes is asking a lot, particularly when the circumstances of one tackle can be completely different to the next.
The one positive from this incident is that Super Rugby Pacific officials should now have a clear precedent to work from and that there is no excuse for a similar judiciary ruling to that which Banks was the fortunate recipient of three years go.
If Paisami has been punished because of his poor head position, then so must everyone.
"I'll leave that for the experts to work through," Kiss said when asked if Paisami's tackle had set a precedent.
Is referee Paul Williams and his fellow officials to blame for their on-field decision? Not at all, they were applying a framework, one that Kiss, the Reds, other "independent referees" Queensland sought the opinion of, and many rugby fans thought they understood.
But if that is not the case then let this be a line-in-the-sand moment for Super Rugby Pacific, as the rugby has been too good to be overshadowed by inconsistencies between different levels of officialdom.