What absolute garbage, from someone who was neither there, nor privy to the reasons why Paice was granted dispensation. While you are speculating without any knowledge, do you want to throw any other players into the mix that Souths might have received dispensation for - unduly so of course!!
To say the QRU was spooked is just rubbish. Surely you would prefer to not see another young player get seriously injured after what happened to that poor Tweedy kid. The colt at Souths is a good young prospect but is exactly that - young! He has another full year of colts ahead!
And in the alternative, if you are suggesting that a 3/4 grader should ride the pine against a rubbish Premier grade scrum, then I would possibly agree, but that is not the case here. Souths would be risking a very young colt or a lower grade player against two Reds contracted players (current and recent former) and an NRC/Aus 20 player. Its dangerous - full stop!
Its not about blinking first, its about being able to close your eyes at all when you got to bed of a night knowing that someone has not been seriously hurt because of an arbitrary policy.
Can we move on!!
The irony is that there is no safety argument. From a refereeing perspective the provisions in Law 3 fully cater for the Souths circumstances and would preclude a safety issue from arising. The QRU has blinked first at the Souths threat to go to uncontested scrums and the QRU apparently doesn't like the possibility of that occurring (bad look?). The latest Rugby News article on this matter indicates that Paice's involvement has been caveated to only coming off the bench - but doesn't say whether that is only as an injury replacement or might also be as a tactical replacement. What will be the referee team involvement in whatever deal has been struck? I'm sure the QRU intent would be for Paice only to come for a genuine injury to Casey - to avoid uncontested scrums, however I have little confidence that it will pan out that way. It will be interesting to see how it plays out this weekend. Regardless, it is clear that the QRU has cocked this up.