‘Citings stacked against ABs’
Ireland manager Mick Kearney claims 11 of the 12 incidents reviewed by the citing commissioner from the bruising Dublin test involved All Blacks.
In the end citing commissioner Bruce Kuklinski, a New Zealand-born Canadian, decided two of the incidents deserved investigation by the World Rugby judiciary – alleged dangerous tackles by Same Cane and Malakai Fekitoa.
The witch-hunt by the Irish media continues with the Independent focusing on the All Blacks’ approach after World Rugby had issued a strong warning about cracking down on hight tackles.
Kearney made no secret that the Irish camp expected All Blacks to be cited in the wake of New Zealand’s 21-9 win.
‘‘It doesn’t surprise me, to be honest. What I would say is the citing officer picked out 12 incidents during the game ... 11 of them referred to New Zealand. The one that referred to us was a clean-out of Sam Cane at a ruck and we were cleared of any foul play in that incident,’’ Kearney said.
‘‘It is disappointing to be honest. There were a number of tackles and bangs around the head. We received the edict from World Rugby in the last week or 10 days and Joe (Schmidt) would have sat the squad down, showed them the various footage – including examples of tackles around the head and neck area.
‘‘World Rugby had said, if these incidents occur then you are liable to a red card possibly. So that obviously didn’t happen at the weekend.
‘‘There was the yellow card for the high tackle on Simon Zebo and they are looking at the other incident involving Sam Cane and Robbie Henshaw.’’
Kearney was eager to take the focus of complaints away from his team.
‘‘I don’t think we are whinging at all. I think the facts speak for themselves. We’re don’t cite anybody,’’ he said in the Independent report.
‘‘We don’t make complaints to the citing officer because at the end of the day they have the angles to look at the game.
‘‘The citing officer has the angles to look at it forensically.’’
Kearney also went into bat for South African referee Jaco Peyper’s performance in the match, saying the subsequent citings didn’t reflect poorly on the whistleman.
‘‘Obviously the citing commissioner has got the advantage of different views. He’s got time, he’s got 24 hours post-game to look right through the game forensically,’’ Kearney said.
‘‘I think it is difficult for a referee to pick up everything on the spot, he does depend on his TMO, he depends on his assistant referees to pick these things up as well.’’
Interestingly the citing commissioner saw no problem with Jonathan Sexton’s high tackle on Beauden Barrett when the All Blacks star was grounding the ball for his crucial try.
The uproar from the Irish crowd was concentrated on the possibility that Barrett had failed to touch down under the grasp of Sexton. But replays suggested that had the grounding of the ball been ruled incorrect, there would have been a strong case for a penalty try given the way Sexton flung his arm around Barrett’s neck in the first movement of his desperate tackle. Irish midfield back Robbie Henshaw has been sidelined with concussion as All Black Sam Cane awaits his fate for the alleged dangerous tackle.
Ireland confirmed that Henshaw was knocked unconscious by Cane’s tackle and would miss Ireland’s final international of the window against Australia this weekend under concussion protocols.
Ulster centre Stuart Olding and Munster centre Rory Scannell have been added to Ireland’s squad as cover.
Cane and All Blacks centre Malakai Fekitoa have been cited by World Rugby for alleged dangerous tackles. Fekitoa went high on Irish wing Simon Zebo and was yellow-carded. Cane was penalised for his tackle on Henshaw.
Their judicial hearings are set for Wednesday (NZ time).
Cane has already been ruled out of this weekend’s test against France in Paris because of an ankle injury suffered in the 21-9 win in Dublin.
The busy judiciary dealt with England lock Joe Launchbury on Tuesday (NZ time), banning him for two weeks for kicking Fiji centre Asaeli Tikoirotuma during England’s win at Twickenham last Sunday.
The incident came when Launchbury, 25, tried to kick the ball away at the base of a ruck but made contact with Tikoirotuma.
At his hearing Launchbury accepted the act, which was missed by the officials, warranted a red card.
The kick was deemed reckless rather than intentional by the judiciary.
The gave him a four-week suspension which was reduced to two weeks because of mitigating factors – Launchbury’s guilty plea, his previous clean record and good conduct at the hearing.
The ban rules him out of England’s tests against Argentina and Australia.