The whole 'letter of the law' thing is such a bullshit justification. Players delay a restart dozens of times a game. Forget about the first incident, you had 2 or 3 after the red where it happened. Referees use their discretion all the time because the fucking game isn't about them and giving soft yellow is not in the interests of a fair game. If you want to know whether it's a good decision or not, I guarantee you no one, absolutely no one, would have been talking about how Rice stayed on the pitch. It's a classic case of 'well I could technically justify a red here, so let me do it, this fucker a lesson for giving me an excuse'.
As for Rice, the first yellow is the one that grates. Jumping after a loose touch is such a daft thing to do.
Took us a while to get our shit together after the red, which is the other disappointment. I think if we got through another 5-10 mins we'd have seen the game out.
