WALLABIES POINT FINGER AT LIFT AS FOLAU CITED
AUSTRALIA have questioned whether CJ Stander’s one-man lift of Peter O’Mahony put the Ireland captain at risk of a heavy fall after star fullback Israel Folau was cited in the wake of Saturday’s series decider.
Folau was shown a yellow card for playing O’Mahony in the air in a 31st minute incident, and the combination of that and a citing commissioner’s warning for an earlier encounter with the Ireland captain mean he will face a disciplinary hearing this week.
Citing commissioner Michael O’Leary said Folau had placed his left hand on O’Mahony’s chest, which caused him to topple over.
The duo clashed in the air three times in the first-half.
However, winger Dane Haylett-Petty has pointed the finger at the role of Stander’s one-man lift in an incident that has split opinion across world rugby.
O’Mahony went off for a Head Injury Assessment and didn’t return, while Folau now faces an anxious wait to see if he will face further sanction.
“Being a player that’s often in the air, you want to be protecting the players but I felt like last night that one-man lift, they’re obviously putting their own player in danger there,” Haylett-Petty said.
“Any time there was any sort of contact in the air, he fell pretty badly. So, I feel like if anything we should be getting rid of that.”
Speaking after the game, Stander accepted some responsibility for his role in his skipper’s injury.
“It’s a tough one, because I’m the one lifting him and I need to look after him,” he said.
“It’s just that Folau is unbelievable in the air, it’s one of those ones where you need to go back and look at it and he got a yellow card.
“It’s tough, Pete got injured because of it. It’s something we worked on during the week, we knew it was going to come, I could have probably protected him a bit better.”