Bad calls hurt ABs – Cane

A World Rugby-appointed judicial committee has cancelled the red card given by referee Angus Gardner to France fullback Benjamin Fall in the test rugby loss to the All Blacks on Saturday night.

New Zealand first five-eighth Beauden Barrett failed a head injury assessment after the midair collision with Fall, barely 12 minutes into the All Blacks’ 26-13 win at Westpac Stadium in Wellington.

Fall received a red card, which killed the atmosphere at the test and has divided opinion since.

World Rugby’s red card hearing was heard by the Independent Judicial Committee of Adam Casselden (chairman), David Croft and John Langford, who said they were ‘‘satisfied, on the balance of probabilities, that the referee’s decision to issue the red card was wrong’’.

Fall was ordered off under Law 9.17 – for tackling, charging, pulling, pushing or grasping an opponent whose feet were off the ground.

He should not have been and was free to play in the third test in Dunedin on Saturday, the committee ruled.

The red card would be removed from his record.

Croft played for Australia and the Queensland Reds while Langford was a Wallaby, Brumbies and Munster player.

Video footage showed Fall at all times ‘‘had his eyes on the ball whilst it was in the air, which showed, in our opinion, a clear intention, on the part of the player, that he intended to contest it,’’ the committee found.

From the moment the ball was kicked by France, Fall ran at pace to a position which he felt would put him in the best possible position to catch it, the committee said.

His line was altered by a collision with All Blacks centre Anton Lienert-Brown, which caused him to lose his balance, stumble and be ‘‘propelled or pushed’’ into the path Barrett was taking, the statement said.

Fall’s attempt to contest the ball was ‘‘compromised’’ by running into Lienert-Brown and Barrett being flipped in mid-air was ‘‘in our opinion’’ a direct cause of that collision.

Fall had been denied the time and space to put himself in a position to avoid a collision with Barrett or to contest the ball as he had initially planned, the committee found.

The committee did not consider that the player’s actions were deliberate or reckless, that he could have foreseen the events as they unfolded or have taken any preventative steps to avoid the collision.

It was unfortunate Barrett had been concussed in the fall, but the committee was satisfied, on the balance of probabilities, that the referee’s decision to issue the red card was wrong.

No criticism was made of the referee nor was it warranted, the statement said.

‘‘Unlike the referee we had the benefit of all the video footage, which showed various angles of the incident,’’ the statement said.

‘‘Unlike the referee we had the luxury of time to deliberate and consider, in private, the incident.

‘‘Accordingly, the red card is dismissed and the player is free to resume playing rugby immediately. We direct World Rugby to expunge the ordering off [red card] from the player’s disciplinary record.’’

The All Blacks would not comment on the decision until today, Stuff was told. Sam Cane accepts the All Blacks’ leaders drove the team down some blind alleys in Wellington last Saturday night.

Although the All Blacks beat France 26-13 to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-test series, it’s unlikely peels of boisterous laughter echoed around their Dunedin hotel meeting room during the post-match debrief yesterday.

That’s because All Blacks coach Steve Hansen and his assistants had a heap of the nasty stuff to show off to their men ahead of the third test in the southern city this weekend.

Even with the French reduced to 14 men, a result of fullback Benjamin Fall being red-carded in the 12th minute, the All Blacks operated like they had just stepped out of a different time zone. The statistics sheet reflected their lethargy: 30 missed tackles, 20 turnovers, 13 penalties conceded and a yellow card to TJ Perenara.

Openside flanker Cane, a member of the All Blacks’ leadership group which is headed by Sam Whitelock because regular skipper Kieran Read is still injured, reckons it’s the generals who have to cop some of the blame.

‘‘Certainly, if we had our time again we would deliver a few different messages,’’ said Cane, who admitted his side was too quick to try and exploit France’s lack of numbers in the back field.

‘‘Just because there is one man down and space out wide, let’s go through them first. Go through there until it’s really obvious. If we had our time again there would be a couple of different ways.’’