Nathan Johns

speaker

3,934 appearances 33 recordings 2 series first heard Apr 2026 last heard 11 Sep

Nathan Johns’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 33 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 10.

Appearances

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The Counter Ruck: The Irish Times Rugby Podcast · Where do Ireland go from here? · 21 Jul 2026 podcast

What I find it is, and it has been ever since they kind of have this clamp down on head contact just before the 2019 World Cup, the card has been outcome based. matched

Yeah, that's fair. matched

You could hit a guy with exactly the same force with a tucked arm in the head, but if you hit him three inches lower in the chest slash shoulder area, it'll be a high tackle and maybe it'll be yellow instead of red. matched

You know what I mean? matched

Yeah. matched

And that's what the James Ryan thing is. matched

Because there was a glancing, he hit James Ryan's back on the way through, even though he still hit Josh Randall Fleer's head. matched

So it's almost as if because it's so outcome focused instead of actually your man's gone in there with really bad, dangerous technique, they've kind of twisted everything around and got themselves confused a little bit. matched

If that makes sense, when at the end of the day, he still hit him in the head. matched

If it was glancing off someone else or not, he's hit him in the head and he had really dangerous technique. matched

Like, is that not the most important thing? matched

But remember, because of decisions that have been made by, well, some unions were pro this and some unions weren't, there wouldn't have been matched

The benefit for Ireland, in inverted commas, would be someone else just comes on and they get an extra 10 minutes. matched

So instead of 10 minutes playing against 14, they get 20 and someone else comes on because, of course, we have that 20-minute red card, which most people I speak to in this neck of the woods are vehemently against. matched

And if you hit someone in the head, you should be gone and your team shouldn't be able to replace. matched

But anyway, that's a different can of worms. matched

Yeah, fair enough. matched

But by the time people listen to this, they may or may not have been excited. matched

I think you're right, John. matched

I think there was the Quintu Paya deliberate knock-on, the Sam Prendergast knock-on, and the Jimmy O'Brien, Ruben Love collision in the air that all could have easily led to cards. matched

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