These didn’t quickly blow over.
The Irish sporting public are still trying to comprehend Michael Conlan’s baffling loss to Vladimir Nikitin.
Despite Conlan’s clear supremacy, each of the three judges scored the fight 29-28 in favour of the Russian fighter. Bernard Dunne said that the”AIBA needs to really look at itself, because that just really turns people off boxing. It turns us off boxing and we love the sport.” Conlan’s reaction speaks for itself.
Bearing this in mind, we’ve decided to take a look at some of the sporting moments that stretched beyond county borders to become national shitstorms.
2002, Munster v Leicester Tigers
Guilty party: Leicester flanker Neil Back.
What happened: Back illegally slapped the ball back onto the safety of his side of his own scrum.
Clip via – Snedds
1998, Offaly v Clare
Guilty party: Referee Jimmy Cooney
What went down: With Clare three points up towards the end of the game, referee Cooney, bafflingly, blew the final whistle with only 33 minutes gone in the second half. Offaly fans were so upset that they staged a sit-down protest in Croke Park afterwards.
Clip via – Classic GAA Channel
2011, Wales v Ireland
Guilty party: Touch judge Peter Allan and referee Jonathan Kaplan
What happened: Law 19.2 was blatantly overlooked.
Welsh hooker Matthew Rees took a quick line-out but used a different ball, not to mention that the ballboy gave the ball to the touch judge. Oh yeah, the throw-in was also taken from the wrong position and Rees had his foot over the line when he threw the pass to Mike Phillips.
Ireland were leading in Cardiff at the time also. Absolute sickener.
Clip via – BullsEye
2009, France v Ireland
Guilty party: Thierry Henry and Martin Hansson.
What happened: Penalties looming. World Cup qualification at stake. Will always hurt.
Clip via – rendatude
2010, Meath v Louth
Guilty party: Referee Martin Sludden.
What happened: Joe Sheridan’s lunge was deemed ‘a perfect goal’. The unsavory scenes that followed weren’t called for, but as the clip below says, this was a case of “daylight robbery”.
Clip via – rbyrne1000’s channel
2013, Gatland drops O’Driscoll
Guilty party: Warren Gatland, but he won the Test series so is there any guilt here? It still caused absolute turmoil given O’Driscoll’s beloved status in Ireland.
What happened: BOD was dethroned for the final and decisive test between The Lions and Australia in Sydney. He wasn’t even on the bench. Ireland’s captain got a measure of revenge though in the next Six Nations meeting against Wales.
1998, Michelle Smith
Guilty party: Two years after the 1996 Summer Olympics, FINA banned the Irish swimmer for four years after she was found guilty of tampering with her urine sample by using alcohol.
What happened: Her Olympic medals still stand. Wherever you fall on the issue is up to you.
2002, Saipan
Guilty party: We’re not even touching that one with a bargepole! Bottom line, nobody came out of this fiasco with their reputations enhanced.
What happened? : One training camp ended up splitting the country in a way that we haven’t seen since the civil war.
2016, Rio Olympics
Guilty party: The AIBA.
What happened: This. We all feel for Michael Conlan but we’ve no doubt that he has an incredible professional career ahead of him.
'Amateur boxing stinks' – The RTÉ panel discusses Michael Conlan's controversial defeat https://t.co/miT6HjqUYn
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) August 16, 2016
