O'Driscoll backing for Boyd’s ‘orange card' tip tackle call

Hurricanes coach Chris Boyd was “horrified” at the thought of the match officials not sinbinning Lions lock Iain Henderson for his tip tackle on Jordie Barrett on Tuesday night, saying it probably deserved more than a yellow card but perhaps less than a red — a unique take on the incident supported by Brian O'Driscoll.

O'Driscoll, the former Lions captain, was tipped on his shoulder in a ruck cleanout in the first test against the All Blacks 12 years ago by Tana Umaga and Keven Mealamu. He suffered a serious injury which wrecked his tour and put him out of the game for six months.

Barrett, the 20-year-old who played his first test recently and had another strong game for the Hurricanes in their thrilling 31-all draw at Westpac Stadium, was uninjured.

Henderson, who had played well until the incident in the 66th minute, appeared likely to escape with only a penalty against his team until the television match official convinced referee Romain Poite to have another look at it.

The incident and numerical advantage galvanised the Hurricanes, who scored two tries and nearly stole the match.

“I was a bit horrified when I was listening to the mic because at first they were talking about [doing] nothing when clearly he [Barrett] was tipped well above the horizontal,” Boyd said.

“The starting point for that is yellow . . . it was probably an orange in my mind — somewhere between a yellow and a red [card].”

When Boyd's statement was tweeted by Irish journalist Murray Kinsella, who was at the game, former Ireland international O'Driscoll responded by saying: “I think that's a fair comment”.

The fact Barrett escaped without injury combined with the appropriate sanction applied on the field, means the incident won't have the mileage that O'Driscoll's did.

Rather, the form of Barrett, who started the match at fullback and shone when moved to first-five in the second half, should be of more lasting consequence.

All Blacks coach Steve Hansen said on Sunday that Barrett, who played well as a replacement in the All Blacks' recent warm-up test against Samoa at Eden Park, wasn't a test firstfive (although he could be a test midfielder), but he played extremely well there on Tuesday night.

His runs at the inside channel stressed the Lions' defence and it was his wide pass which helped send Wes Goosen away for the converted try which began the comeback in earnest.

“It's something that we've been looking at for a little while,” Boyd said of moving Barrett to No 10.

“The initial plan was to switch him around into centre, push Vince Aso to the wing and play Nehe [MilnerSkudder] at fullback but we felt in the second half when we were chasing the game to put Jordie into that 10 position where he's pretty happy going to the line hard and he's got a pretty good offloading game.

“It also allowed us to pull Nehe off the right wing and put him at fullback where we had additional counter attacking options in the middle of the field.”

The result for Barrett was a gamehigh total of 19 ball carries and 144 metres in possession. Like his All Blacks brothers Beauden and Scott, this Barrett also has the knack for making things happen.

Wing Julian Savea praised the younger Barrett’s contribution.

“He went well, he fitted in smoothly. He's an all-round good player no matter where you play him,” Savea said.