This talk on Seyfarth costing us the game is stupid. We lost because the Warriors were better than us for most of the game and we panicked in those last 5 minutes. It is not the sole responsibility of one specific player.
But anyway since we are going down this route. Seyfarth's tackle, despite what most people are saying, is most definitely a penalty if the refs are being consistent with previous calls (
link). Personally, I don't think penalties where a player falls into a high tackle should be given unless excessive force is displayed (Sua'ali'i on Walsh), as it's entirely accidental and unintentional, but that's my opinion and not the direction been given to the officials. However, I don't understand how Turuva did not get a penalty given he definitely got hit high and had to get HIA'd.
Anyway, I digress. Leading up to Seyfarth's penalty. He makes the 1st and 4th tackle in similar fashion and is involved in the 2nd. On the 5th tackle he's tracking back from marker, Egan gets close he pushes him away lightly then moves in to make the tackle. CNK is only 9cm shorter than Seyfarth but CNK is looking for a way through the line so running a bit lower because turning and whatever. Seyfarth obviously doesn't correct enough (he does a little and torso is bent 35 degrees from vertical (measured)) and hits him high. This is a penalty and sure Seyfarth should have aimed lower, but if he aims too low he is below the ball carrying arm and at risk of an ineffective tackle (where an offload is made) unless Latu gets there. I know it's easy to say "go low" but he's also got to wrap the ball up as well so it's a fine balance he has to achieve and this time he misses too high and it's a penalty.
P.S Just to make it clear, I'm not trying to justify the penalty, it's a penalty and he needed to correct a bit more. I'm just trying to provide context to the situation like I would do for Faataape (as an example, 15 game player under pressure to come up with game-winning play does something stupid).
Also Canadian Club mentioned Sione getting low. Sione was nowhere near even making the tackle, if no one was there CNK would have just waltzed through and it would have gone down as a miss for Sione so it's hardly a fair comparison. In that set, May and Twal tackle in almost the exact same fashion as Seyfarth had done (Twal even standing directly upright), it's just the players tackled were doing hit-ups while CNK was trying to evade. The only players that went low in that set were Api and Fainu and both times they failed to wrap up the ball, relying on another player to wrap it up or putting them in a position where they just don't.
For those arguing ill-discipline, personally I don't think so. He's just missed by like 10cm and the manner in which this miss happens it turns into a penalty. For me ill-discipline is throwing out a lazy arm (seyfarth 3 or 4 times last year) or just putting a late hit on someone for no reason (Tupouniua, Mahoney).
Furthermore, if we want to single out Seyfarth for his discipline/penalties then it would be completely unfair not to do so with others. Seyfarth is currently our 4th worst for min/penalty at 76, behind Latu (33), TDS (54.5), SamFainu (66.5) and 4th again for min/penalty or ruck infringement at 60.8 behind TDS (27.25), Latu (33) and May (45.67).
What Seyfarth conceded was only 2 points for what is an unfortunate penalty. However, without him we don't score that try before half time, so he's actually up 2 points. Additionally, TDS and Luai gave away a set restart each immediately after Sam Fainu became injured and while I think we were able to sub him off when SEYFARTH held up Egan over the line (well I guess he's up 6 points and I'm not even including conversions), but still we were unstructured and the Niokore try happened like 5 tackles after the set would have finished with some defensive line discipline initially.
Let's face it. This is a team sport and as a TEAM WE were not good enough. It is not one single players fault, nobody had a flawless game, but I feel everyone contributed something positive to the team and Seyfarth definitely contributed a lot.
