All Blacks coach Steve Hansen says SANZAAR’s decision not to cite Owen Franks over an alleged eye gouge on Wallaby Kane Douglas shows the danger of rushing to judgement without viewing all the angles.
Wallabies coach Michael Cheika said he expected Franks to have faced sanction following Saturday night’s 29-9 defeat in Wellington, claiming the incident would be “pretty hard to miss” for match review officials.
However, no action was taken on match review, neither team referred any incidents from the match to SANZAAR, and Hansen said he was pleased the correct process had been followed.
“You’ve got to be really, really careful until you see all the views, and social media I think alerted everyone to it,” Hansen told reporters on Sunday morning.
“They certainly don’t get all the views.
“There’s a process and that process is followed and whoever was running it has obviously seen all the angles and believes there’s nothing to answer for.”
Hansen said the incident where Franks grabbed Wallabies lock Douglas around the head was an “unfortunate byproduct” of mauling rules and claimed the same thing happened to his players on two or three other occasions.
“The only way you can get there is through clambering over the top, and then that creates a response, people try and pull them out of the way and the only thing they can use is the head area,” he said.
“We’ll look at that and try and make sure we don’t go around that area because it creates a problem.
“But if there’s no case to answer, there’s no case to answer.”
Hansen said he had nothing to add regarding Cheika’s strong post-match comments on the incident.
“It’s been dealt with, end of story,” he said.
Playerfromwayback
Guest
Kane Douglas has come out and said himself "my eyes were not gouged" so to all of you conspiracy theorists with your tin hats and one eyed (pun intended) opinions.......... Hansen and SANZAAR were right! No case to answer! Move along people, nothing to see here!
mania
Guest
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/all-blacks/83780757/wallabies-lock-kane-douglas-comes-to-owen-franks-defence-in-eyegouging-allegations and let me just say SUCKERS. the black invisibility cloak strikes again. franks off scott free and justifiably so. LMAO
Steiner
Roar Pro
Yeah exactly! Like the Kiwis have with Quade Cooper.
Marius Ciliers
Roar Guru
In retrospect I regret writing this post. I was overly emotional and blatendly biased. Franks was in the wrong. And Poite was in the wrong for not penalizing Owen Franks on the spot. There were allot of posotives to take from the match that Cheika can take forward and build upon. And its great hope that the Wallabies achieve and walk on the great hights they once did again.
jameswm
Roar Guru
If it isn't it should be. It was clearly a deliberate hand on face. Franks even had a second go.
Kurt
Guest
Pocock got pinged over 3 times for illigal scrumaging all were clear wins for pocock. The franks incident The shoulder charge by coles was only penalized around 4 times i counted offside. Im an australian fan, but nz deserved the win, i just want to see fair play, and infractions punished
Kurt
Guest
Because he attempted it. Like attempted murder. Or attempted robbery. It is the intent that is the issus
ben
Guest
After 13 hours...cant find any Rollaway?? Didnt think so. Hilarious how people come on here and make stuff up. Now if you're looking for a renowned thug and cheapshot merchant, check your own team. A guy called Kepu.
Machiavelli
Guest
You boo because of the chip on your shoulder. You have the best team in the world and it is still not enough.
Larry_Parallelogram
Roar Rookie
I thought the video of the incident didn't look good. However, Kane Douglas looks more distressed when Frank's hand goes down to his throat/neck as opposed to when his hand was on this face. What I think may be important here is that when Franks has his hand on Kane's face (his arm is above Kanes arm/shoulder) and the ref appears to point at Franks and yell something at him like "no not the head". This results in Franks moving his hand away from the face and putting his arm under Kane's arm and grabbing him around the neck. Therefore, I think Franks may of had bad intentions when he initially put his hand on Kanes face but was stopped by the ref before he did something more sinister. The subsequent neck grab then resulted in Kane complaining, but that is probably a penalty offence not a red card offence. As a result there was no citing by the match commissioner.
ben
Guest
Are you defending Kepus actions in the final too....are you as vocal on that? Maybe not. Or Colemans late shoulder charge? Or Moores push to Arran Smiths face after his box kick.or Kepus ragdolling of Smith way after the ball was gone..oh thats right the All Blacks do cheap shots the Aussies rightfully retaliate for some injustice...
Yawn
Guest
mods. No name calling pls
David
Guest
I just finished watching the Argy v S.Afr game and I have to ask, what is it with French referees. In the game the Boks do more than a few neck tackles, one almost strangled the Arg player, not one penalty. Before in the Aussie v Blacks the attack on the face of the lock in a mal, no problem for the referee. Why is the team that is expected to win treated better. I don't mind if the referee makes mistakes but I prefer the mistakes to be even stevens. Roars, is that asking to much?
In Brief
Guest
Jacko, no one is pretending the better team didn't win. That's just pathetic revisionism. But when a team is so dominant, why the need for the late shoulder charges? Why the facials? Why the swinging arms to the head? And why is it NZ gets away with so much? I love the way NZ play rugby, but I absolutely hate bullies. Play tough by all means, but cut out the cheap stuff please.
In Brief
Guest
Are you defending Franks facial? Will you defend Coles swinging up to the head? Are you as vocal on the NZ cheap shots... maybe not.
In Brief
Guest
It wasn't accidental and it wasn't one off - he gouged Douglas on two separate occasions. Went the face, looked at the referee, saw there was no response, so went back for seconds.. only an All Black would get away with it..
In Brief
Guest
As the Irish call it, the All Black cloak of invisibility - massive joke on world rugby
Ken Catchpole's Other Leg
Guest
Good point B-Mac. I wonder what Sir Colin thinks of all this Aussie 'thuggery'.
Boomeranga
Guest
You've hidden the wrong that is Franks going for the eyes and face of Douglas (your first line) within the wrong that is Cheika blaming everyone else for our woes (your next 20 lines). That's poor. Cheika losing it doesn't excuse Franks. Cheika need to pull his head in. But I've now seen the magical other angle and Franks is going for eyes on that side as well. It's dodgy. It should have been looked at properly.
Boomeranga
Guest
Shane - do you think the All Blacks would have reported it if they could have? Have they reported anyone since? Have we dobbed on any opposition players since the law was changed?