Australia’s Darcy Swain will miss three Tests and the Australia A tour of Japan after being banned until November 6 by the SANZAAR judiciary panel.
Swain received what was called a six week suspension for his cleanout that left New Zealand’s Quinn Tupaea with a serious knee injury in last week’s Bledisloe Cup match in Melbourne.
Tupaea suffered a ruptured medial cruciate ligament (MCL) and a partial anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear in his left knee after Swain entered a ruck and made contact with the All Black’s leg.
Swain received a yellow card from French referee Mathieu Raynal but was later cited. It was his second ban of the season after a red card in the opening Test against England in Perth.
The ban means he will miss Saturday’s match against the Kiwis and Tests against Scotland at Murrayfield on October 30 and France in Paris on November 6.
On Wednesday he was named on the Australia A team but will also miss that.
He can, however, play three matches on the Spring Tour, against Italy, Ireland and Wales.
Swain was found guilty of contravening Law 9.11 – ” Players must not do anything that is reckless or dangerous to others”
In its findings, the Judicial Committee chair, Andre Oosthuizen SC ruled:
“Having conducted a detailed review of all the available evidence, having heard from the player and from his legal representative, Aaron Lloyd, the Judicial Committee upheld the Citing and deemed the incident meet the red card threshold for Law 9.11.”
“With respect to sanction the Judicial Committee deemed the act of foul play merited a mid-range entry point of six (6) weeks. Through the actions by the player such as position, control, and player movements they found the incident was not intentional, however, it was highly reckless.”
The All Blacks were angry with the challenge and Ian Foster said they had a “big issue” with it.
“We’ve got a player who’s probably out for nine months and you’re not allowed to target legs on the side at cleanout past the ball,” said Foster. “The rules are pretty clear.”
On Thursday, Foster said he didn’t want to dwell on the incident but felt the judiciary came up “with a pretty satisfactory answer”.
The decision was greeted with derision in some quarters.
Wallabies coach Dave Rennie tried to argue that Swain didn’t deserve his yellow card.
“It was certainly nothing intentional,” Rennie said. “Ironically, he got neck-rolled prior to him cleaning out, but that wasn’t picked up.”
Writing in The Roar, Will Genia said he felt it was clearly intentional and predicted a two-week suspension for Swain.
The Wallabies will name their team for the second on Thursday with Cadeyrn Neville taking a spot in the second row to replace Swain.
Several other changes are tipped with Rob Leota’s injury also forcing a rethink in the backrow.
The Wallabies have no issue with Raynal officiating their rematch with the All Blacks even as they still fume from late decisions in their opening Bledisloe Cup defeat.
Raynal has been appointed as an assistant for Saturday’s Rugby Championship decider at Auckland’s Eden Park, with Irishman Andrew Brace in the middle.
Wallabies pair Jake Gordon and Jed Holloway said the side was still smarting from the manner of the 39-37 defeat, which hinged on Reynal’s timewasting call with less than two minutes remaining.
Asked whether the best response was to move on from the episode or use the pain as preparation for the trip to New Zealand, Gordon was emphatic.
“We need to channel that frustration,” he said.
“It’s pretty clear that we’re all bitterly disappointed for how the result finished. We’ve got to channel it in the right way.
“We really need to control what we can there. It doesn’t really matter that (Raynal is) going to be a touchy. If we play well for the 80 minutes, I’m sure we’ll get a good result.”
Motivation is not in short supply for Dave Rennie’s side as they set out to end a 36-year Eden Park drought against the All Blacks.
Holloway will suit up for his first Test as a Wallaby at New Zealand’s House of Pain, grateful for a first hit-out against the Kiwis last week.
“I was full of nerves so it’s good to get that out of the way,” he said.
“I can’t wait to go over there and to be a part of it and hopefully have a huge impact on the game as well. Collectively as a team we can’t wait. We’re chewing at the bit to get over there.”
(With AAP)
Neil Welsford
Guest
Would like to see Langi get a go. Can’t see why he’s in the squad & not getting any game time. Hopefully they blood him in NH tour in Nov
PeterK
Roar Guru
Kane - I think you have not understood what I am suggesting. Say a suspension of 4 weeks is given in super rugby. That would be 4 weeks AND 100 points penalty. Note if that suspension was in tests then the penalty would be 4 weeks and 400 points penalty. Say the next 3 games are tests. The player (assuming it is accepted they would be selected for tests and counts), would wipe out the 100 points for missing the 1st test , however they would still be suspended for another 3 weeks, missing all tests. So what I suggest is no different in this scenario to what currently happens. Also say the player in question has never played a test and at best is a fringe test player, say like Campbell for the reds. Do you honestly think that DR and the selectors would announce that he was going to be selected for the next 3 tests to help out the reds? And judiciary accepting this. It has never happened and I doubt it ever will. The player has to be a credible choice of selection and especially as a lock in for multiple tests. Now the big hit is if the game suspension was in the test, say a last test of the year. The 4 weeks are served with no games missed. But until they wipe out 400 points in super rugby which is they can't play a game. Say they miss 3 preseason games, that is 15 points. They would then have to miss 16 super rugby games which is the whole season.
Kane
Roar Guru
"Also would the selectors say they would have picked a suspended super rugby player just to help that team out?" Where there are loopholes to exploit people will exploit them. So yes I think they would have. Would Swain really have played for Australia A? Who knows.
Kane
Roar Guru
You're stating that a test is worth more. So are you saying that a bad tackle in Super Rugby means they could miss the entire season but doing that same tackle in test rugby means you're out for a quarter of the time? Players on a lower level get penalised for longer than top tier test players.
graymatter
Roar Rookie
fair enough! That was poor as well.
Gavin
Roar Rookie
Seems wild Rugby Australia would try to find a way to get Darcy back on the field this year and not really address the real problem. Darcy makes poor decisions in critical games and essentially hurts his own team with brain snaps. Australia A should now have to play with 22 players for the next 3 games to stop this loophole and make RA accountable as well as Darcy.
Gavin
Roar Rookie
Totally agree. Australia A next 3 games should also be played with 22 players instead of the game day 23 to stop this rubbish. Swain was never going on this trip but an easy way out of a lengthy ban. Well done RA for not addressing the real problem. Darcy is a dirty player with no sportsman like qualities.
Homer Gain
Guest
Interesting to hear the back and forth on rugby violence, esp re Ken Catchpole (who was before my time). This is a little dated, but accoridng to one Kiwi guru, it doesn't even make it into the top ten. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/infamous-acts-of-rugby-violence/GBSXEC3WGK35N4KPMNF6MPIWVE/?c_id=80&objectid=10377598
Two Cents
Guest
Probably fairly unanimous that Swain got very lucky. But it is neither a controversial decision to only ban for 6 weeks nor really unexpected given that the judiciary was already prepared to hear and accept any mitigating circumstances. Clearly both Swain and his lawyer made reasonable exculpations of his actions and that was apparently backed up by what the officials saw from the replays. However, I think RA should seriously reconsider Swain at this level. Even for the Brumbies, he has some inexplicable lapses of composure and that shouldn't keep being rewarded with continued game time. Sometimes relegation is the only way to teach a lesson.
Wallabies_Larkham
Roar Rookie
"Is New Zealand Rennie serious about developing and fielding our best Australian side, or is his heart messing with his head?" Hehe
Wallabies_Larkham
Roar Rookie
I'm surprised DR did not call up Big Will..
Wallabies_Larkham
Roar Rookie
:thumbup:
Wallabies_Larkham
Roar Rookie
Yes frost has not featured since the test against Los Pumas...DR seems to have a love for extraordinary average players like Neville and Banksy..
Wallabies_Larkham
Roar Rookie
Holloway's impact or effort just does not seem to stick out like let's say Valentini..he will need to have a big game..
Wallabies_Larkham
Roar Rookie
These kind of selections are costing us..Fainga'a is just not backing up Porecki...
Wallabies_Larkham
Roar Rookie
"As an aside, Uelese can’t even make the 35 man aust a squad and we need quality hookers , it is amazing" if you are not a favourite of DR then this is what happens..DR is willing to spend alot of time on Vunivalu but does not want to invest time in addressing the short comings that he sees in Uelese...
jeznez
Roar Guru
Made those comments before I knew Philip was injured. I think our strongest locks so far this season have been Philip and Frost. I'd have Holloway on the bench behind them at the moment. Rodda, Skelton and although I know it won't happen Salakaia-Loto and Hosea the others I'd like to see in the mix. Love Jed - Southern Districts lad - but he's undersize for a Test lock and not showing the work rate for a Test back row.
Passit2me
Roar Rookie
I think Swain made a name for himself with some heroics in the Maul against France to secure the win and he has done it quite a few times since against other teams. Anyway, both Frost and Bell are one the bench, so that's a win on the selection selection stakes.
Wallabies_Larkham
Roar Rookie
Jez I'm quite surprised that you want to drop Holloway..has he not impressed you thus far..
TiredOldGit
Roar Rookie
I think swains act was horrendous but the "how dare they" histrionics are getting a bit pathetic. The ABs aren't a swan in Hyde park, things happen in sport. And the wallabies learnt these ban tricks from SBW and the abs. Move on.