Cards put foul play in spotlight

A red card for Sonny Bill Williams and a yellow card for Mako Vunipola — the issue of foul play will be firmly back on the agenda over the next week, likely to be the most intense build-up to a test here since the 2011 World Cup final.

The All Blacks won’t be saying it publicly but they will be disappointed with the Lions’ constant offending and in particular prop Vunipola, a player who probably should have been cited for his late tackle on Anton Lienert-Brown at Eden Park.

Vunipola hit Beauden Barrett with a late shoulder charge last night and minutes later cleaned him out of a ruck with another shoulder dangerously near the No 10’s head.

All this after Lions coach Warren Gatland complained about Jerome Kaino targeting the non-kicking leg of halfback Conor Murray in an isolated incident last weekend.

The issue is one of intent, and All Blacks coach Steve Hansen during the week said he didn’t believe players of either side would deliberately try to hurt each other.

Referee Jerome Garces used the “intent” word in reviewing the replays before showing Williams the red card, and afterwards Hansen said consistency of the decision-making by the officials was the key.

“I don’t think so, no,” Hansen replied when asked if Williams’ connection with Anthony Watson’s head was intentional.

“But I’m not Sonny Bill so I don’t know what his intent was. I don’t know if Jerome [Garces] does either. Did Mako Vunipola intend to take Beauden Barrett’s head off? I don’t think so — that’s what happens.

“Things happen in the heat of the moment where players get on the wrong side of the law. Are they intentional? I still don’t think that anyone does that intentionally.

“Unfortunately it happens and there’s a process that will deal with it — both incidents, I’m picking. All you want from your ref is consistency, and again there’s a process for that if it’s not right.

“There’s no point in me making any comment about what Jerome Garces is saying — what you should be excited about is that it’s one-all, the Lions won the game and played well and we go to Auckland with the series at stake. It’s pretty exciting.”

There was ill-feeling throughout this tough test, at the final whistle and apparently in the tunnel afterwards, with words spoken between players of the opposing teams. Hansen said he hadn’t seen the latter incident so couldn’t comment.

The result was disappointing for skipper Kieran Read in his 99th test.

“It would be up there,” Read said of the tough nature of the battle. “In some ways having to adapt [to playing with 14 men] made it tough.”