18 BIT OF SLAP AND TICKLE

In the closing stages of the Bledisloe Cup there was a bit of niggle brewing. Nothing major, just the various new players who had come o• the bench trying to make their mark.

One of those was Wallabies replacement hooker Tolu Latu who wanted to let Codie Taylor know he was there. So the Wallaby gave Taylor a little slap in one scrum and that meant that when it broke up and the All Blacks had their penalty, Taylor marched towards his opposite number.

He just kept coming towards him and when he got there, Taylor shoved Latu. That should have been it but Latu couldn’t resist and he shoved back, except his was more of a slap to the face than a shove and he was yellow carded for his troubles in one of the more dumb and needless plays.

“You shouldn’t do it because if they push us and he pushes back then he should know it is going to come back on us. That is just the nature of where we are at the moment,” said Wallabies coach Michael Cheika.

“He shouldn’t do it but at the same time as a footballer you don’t want to be pushed. I don’t think the referee was going to do anything about it when he kept coming towards him. I understand he wants to look after himself and stand up for himself that is part of the game…but not in that matter.”