Australian coach Andy Friend says World Rugby must act quickly to ensure the debut of sevens at the Rio Olympics isn’t plagued by an embarrassing eight-man bungle like the one which struck the Sydney Sevens.
The sport’s governing body has launched an investigation into New Zealand’s apparent fielding of an extra man in the dying stages of their 17-17 pool draw with the home side.
Although the result was allowed to stand, the All Black Sevens are facing possible disciplinary action when World Rugby finishes its review.
Australia led 17-10 in the dying moments of the final pool A match when vision from television cameras showed eight New Zealanders on Allianz Stadium before Ardie Savea scored under the posts.
More sevens:
» Aussie sevens have the right Friend as coach
» New Zealand pinch Sydney Sevens
» Eight-man bungle could hurt 7s: Friend
» Sevens: All the action from Day 2
» Sevens: All the action from Day 1
» WATCH: Aussies robbed by eight-man All Blacks
NZ took top spot in pool A on for-and-against to be drawn against the USA in the Cup quarter-finals, while Australia arguably received some fortune by meeting an injury-hit England.
Ironically, both sides then won through to a Sunday night rematch in the final.
Friend believed the incident was a pure accident but was baffled how such a simple mistake could have been made at a crucial time of a match.
“The question is how can that happen? In an Olympic year, if that comes down to a gold medal game, well what’s the point?” he said, shaking his head.
“Our boys, when they came off, they said they couldn’t understand how they had the numbers out there.
“What we have to make sure is that those simple mistakes don’t happen in a big tournament.”
While New Zealand would not comment, Friend said World Rugby also needed to look at the sanctions for an eight-man breach, as the current punishment was a mere on-field penalty.
PeterK
Roar Guru
too many want to lay the blame on the officials. The NZ coaches / managers knew how many players they sent on and knew how many came off. You know you have 1 less on the reserves bench. They were happy to exploit the error of the officials, they made no attempt to alert the officials.
taylorman
Roar Guru
It's people that make them dodgy, usually through the benefit of hindsight, replays then allowing ones bias to form an opinion. All three can be explained as unfortunate incidents where either not all information at the time was known ( Joubert and the forward pass) and some sort of miscount/ mistiming on behalf of the 8 player issue. Dodgy...? Certainly.
Jack
Guest
Rubbish England had an extra man on the field in the 2003 RWC, did we see every subsequent tournament "plagued" by this craven barrage of cheating? No we didn't, mountain out of a molehill. International sport is such a whingefest these days. It has to end, it's a far bigger blight on the game than the occasional error by an official
Mike from tari
Guest
This is nearly as bad as the under arm, good old rugby union, NZ cheats & nothing happens?????
superba
Guest
Why does the dodgy penalty that got Australia through to the RWC final come to mind ? And also the dodgy knockon ruling awarded to NZ in the previous Sevens in Wellington to help them win against SA on the gong .And who was that ref ?A Kiwi - relative of the infamous Bryce . Dodgy is as dodgy does . Dodgy is everywhere . A real shame .
Cadfael
Roar Guru
I don't recall hearing or reading any denials by the Kiwis that they had 8 players on the field. If that is correct, you have to wonder why? Had it been us accused of playing 8 against the Kiwis, we still be hearing the shrieks. The real issues are that the officials didn't control the substitutions,it took forever and a day for World Rugby to respond and that there is virtually no penaltyfor this with a possible deduction of table points. Even on game day, unless it is spotted by an official, bad luck. For goodness sake, league has had this problem with subs for years and has been nearly cleaned up with replacements having to go to the sideline official before coming on. As well. when this did happen, the offending team was stripped of their points after the game.
scrum
Roar Rookie
Can you imagine the outcry if it was the Aussies who had 8 players and beat NZ. There would have been endless mentions of Underarm bowling and claims that Kiwis would never resort to cheating. And I am not accusing the Kiwis of cheating just a stuff up by Kiwi management and sideline officials. What I am criticising is the hypocritical attitude of sledging Aussie at every possible opportunity while simultaneously claiming the self appointed title of the best sports in the world.
james
Guest
this is what happens when the side line match officials dont do thier job properly. Dont take it out on the players. The match official should of intervened during these rolling subs. Its his job to ensure players come into the field in the right place at the right time.
ThugbyFan
Guest
Kitch is correct that the sideline officials need a rocket to ensure they are more aware of whats happening. Secondly, no ifs or buts, take away ALL 22 points that the NZ 7's team received for the Sydney round. Its the only way to ensure no other team "accidentally" makes such an error again. It irrelevant whether it was an error or not, if they get away with having 8 players on the field and just receive a limp lettuce on the wrist, then its open slather to ignore the rules. Just show the C grade certificate in 4th grade maths you got when you left school, then rock up to win the next comp? Blabbing on about getting the easier side of the draw is just male bovine faeces. Its difficult enough to beat the Kiwi's, what with refs awarding dodgy ruck penalties 4 seconds from time, but fair suck of the sav bro why not just field 15 blokes and be done with it. :)
Pita
Guest
Win at all costs champ, that's why we're grinnin ? World champion all blacks!!
CUW
Guest
it would be an issue if all 8 touched the ball in scoring the winning try. of course one could say the defensive alignment would be afftcted with the extra man. on the brighter side OZ got to play an easier team (due to innjuuries). anyway with all that they could have shown NZ a lesson in final , but still lost it. so the only logic maybe OZ wanted someone else in the final :)
Kitch
Guest
Aus ended up with the easier side of the draw anyway so all complaints seem a bit hollow! Isn't there officials on the sideline who control the subs?