It is a hung jury, there is no unanimous verdict. When Leicester centre Guy Porter was sent off for a gut-wrenching head collision with Clermont No 8 Fritz Lee in the Tigers’ mammoth win in France on Sunday, the referee’s decision to brandish a red card divided the room.

Live, it must be said, it seemed incredibly harsh – but it would have taken minerals the size of the nearby Puy de Dôme from referee Nika Amashukeli to not cede to the baying crowd’s demands for a red card at the Stade Marcel-Michelin. The Georgian, it should be noted, had an otherwise excellent match but his workings-out for the Porter red card require further scrutiny. Yes, there was head contact and, yes, Leicester’s centre was upright when such contact was made, but this did seem like one of those exceedingly rare instances where nothing untoward had taken place and, in essence, was unfortunate. “A rugby incident”, as those more fashionable than I love to bleat.

Leicester captain Ellis Genge after the match magnanimously conceded that the sanction was “probably” correct. “He’s standing upright, head on head,” he said. “It is what it is.” Jono Gibbes, Clermont Auvergne’s director of rugby, went full Arsene Wenger, stating that he hadn’t seen it clearly enough. When pressed, however, Gibbes highlighted the need for player safety and shifted slightly uncomfortably in his seat.

And with good reason. It was not an easy decision for Amashukeli to make. Before we get into the minutiae of the decision-making, let us revisit the incident itself.

Below, you can see Leicester centre Porter just above the scoreboard; his head is off-camera. Opposite him is Lee, whose head is also off-camera. The ball is in the hands of Clermont and former France fly-half Camille Lopez, with his back to camera and 10 on his back: