The fallout over Darcy Swain’s hit on Quinn Tupaea has continued with the Wallabies lock branded an “absolute coward” by a former All Black who is still an active player in France.
Lima Sopoaga tweeted his disgust over Swain’s Bledisloe Cup cleanout on Tupaea at the time of the incident and doubled down in the wake of news that Tupaea would nine months after serious ACL damage, putting his World Cup in doubt.
Swain was banned for six weeks for the clearance – although some swift thinking by Australian selectors means he’ll serve half of that on the Australian A tour of Japan that kicks off on Saturday. Australian A coach Jason Gilmore confirmed Swain didn’t travel to train with the team in Japan, staying at home instead.
The injury to centre Tupaea has angered many in the NZ rugby community and Sopoaga made his feelings clear on social media.
Meanwhile, Ireland’s Bundee Aki has copped an eight-week suspension for a brutal cleanout while playing for Connacht.
The centre was given his marching orders for a dangerous shoulder-to-head clearout on Stormers wing Seabelo Senatla on the hour mark of their United Rugby Championship clash on Saturday.
Before leaving the field, however, Aki remonstrated with the referee about the decision so his dissent was factored into the length of his suspension by the judicial officer overseeing the process.
Aki will miss at least five URC rounds for his province and two of three Ireland Tests in November, but could return to face the Wallabies if he completes the head contact process coaching intervention.
Aki’s challenge on Senatla was declared “reckless” by the judicial officer and fell within mid-range on the scale of seriousness but his arguing with the official carried an entry point sanction of 10 weeks.
The judiciary took into account his poor record.
“The Player’s previous suspensions for red cards in 2019 and 2021 for foul play involving head contact, as well as his suspension and warning for previous conduct relating to interactions with referees, were considered aggravating factors, which the Judicial Officer decided warranted a further two weeks of sanction,” the judiciary found.
‘Never seen that much pressure and scrutiny’
Kiwi British and Irish Lions coach Warren Gatland says he’s never noticed such low public morale in his homeland than during the All Blacks’ run of defeats this season.
The All Blacks hit their lowest ever world ranking following the 26-10 defeat to the Springboks in Mbombela and it seemed that Ian Foster was days away from losing his job. New Zealand Rugby held firm and Foster was able to turn it around.
Writing in the UK Telegraph , Gatland described public reaction towards Foster was ‘complete turmoil’.
“In all the time I have been involved with rugby, I have never seen a head coach under that amount of pressure and scrutiny. In New Zealand, there was complete turmoil,” Gatland wrote.
“The vitriol levelled at the coach and squad on social media was completely alien and over the top for a nation that has always been regarded as the heavyweights in world rugby. Never before has public morale in our national team been so low.”
The All Blacks finished their nine Tests so far this year with a 5-4 record but that could have easily become 4-5 without the intervention of Mathieu Raynal in Melbourne.
(Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)
Gatland said the losses to Ireland, South Africa and Argentina could be taken as a positive for the team building towards the World Cup.
“New Zealand needed this wobble before next year’s World Cup. It shouldn’t necessarily be viewed negatively – in fact it is a huge positive for New Zealand Rugby and healthy for the wider game,” wrote Gatland.
“Such is the volatile nature of Test rugby that you can post 20 or 30 points on a team one week and then get hammered by them the next. It is fantastic to see international teams that are capable of beating each other if they get their strategy right on the day.”
Gatland said he thought an All Blacks dip was on the cards after the 2019 Rugby World Cup.
“I sensed a slight reluctance to talk about anything new or look at what teams in the northern hemisphere were doing,” Gatland wrote.
“That certainly rang true when the All Blacks lost to France 40-25 last November, in what was a dress rehearsal for the opening game of the 2023 World Cup. Only recently has there been a shift – players have started to be more receptive to the new ideas and philosophies that have infiltrated the camp in the wake of recent coaching reinforcements.”
“But the real acid test will be their showdown against England at Twickenham in November. That will be a very good indication of where both teams are a year out from a World Cup.”
WRWC record set to fall
The record attendance for a women’s Rugby World Cup match will be broken when the tournament begins in New Zealand on 8 October.
More than 30,000 tickets have been sold for the opening matchday at Eden Park, with organisers hopeful they can push towards the 50,000 capacity.
The tournament kicks off with three games at the venue – including a massive test for the Wallaroos against New Zealand, who they never beaten.
England play Fiji and South Africa play France in the other matches at Eden Park on the 8th. The previous record is 20,000 set at the 2014 World Cup in France.
Legal battle kicks off
Lawyers representing World Rugby will have a first meeting on Saturday (AEST) with the legal team representing 215 former players who are claiming they are suffering brain injuries as a result of playing the game, The Times reports.
The players have launched a legal claim against World Rugby, the Rugby Football Union and the Welsh Rugby Union, claiming they have developed neurological disorders such as early onset dementia.
The players include Steve Thompson, a member of the England team who won the Rugby World Cup in 2003, and the former Wales captain Ryan Jones.
The Times says lawyers representing World Rugby’s insurers have requested the meeting but are not expected to make any kind of offer regarding damages. The meeting is touted as a fact-finding mission before an extended legal case.
World Rugby has said the number of cases filed in the proceeding is 139. Its chief executive, Alan Gilpin, has insisted that dealing with head injury risk is its “number one priority” but also suggested last month that there may be an attempt to “use the media effectively to recruit more players into that [legal] action”.
That was denied by Richard Boardman, of Rylands Law, who said there was no targeted recruitment campaign.
Ken Catchpole's Other Leg
Roar Guru
Wish your last paragraph were wrong but I fear it is right. Perhaps the Roar could vote in a Fair Play Diplomat to send to the Cup to liaise with all participant nations?
FunBus
Roar Rookie
Thankfully, the 'brutal flying knee to the head' by Quade Cooper that would have killed a lesser man than Richie McCaw and has led to Cooper being booed mercilessly even a decade later, was a proportionate and accurate appraisal of a 'terrible' incident.
FunBus
Roar Rookie
As a pom, Ken, I find what I'm about to say difficult :happy: , but in general I think the reaction of the Aussie media and fans (at least on here - admittedly a generally more intelligent forum than most across the rugby world) to the Swain incident has been good. The only thing I don't get about the 'vibe' from many Aussie rugby fans at the moment, is the hysteria about refs. It started under Cheika and, as I think it was Mitchell that pointed it out recently, it's not doing you any favours. It gives the players a psychological 'out.' 'It's not me that should reassess how I'm approaching things after my 2nd red card and 4th Yellow, but the ref.' On your general point, we're approaching a RWC. The diplomacy surrounding the Middle East will be infinitely easier to address.
Ken Catchpole's Other Leg
Roar Guru
It seems that the world of rugby still holds disparate cosmologies especially around the line between the vigorous and the violent. Am I alone in seeing Oz commentary as uniquely split along the Ban/Release Darcy divide? Other nations seem to be more monochrome around their ‘sinners’. Anyhoo, the commentary since Darcygate (or should that be ‘Not through the gate’?)has lifted old scabs. Even old Col n Ken of 1969 got some spirited mentions. We have a long way to go yet, obviously. This could be a job for a professional diplomat after they solve a lesser puzzle, like peace in the Middle East, the two wild ‘Vlads’ and where the flu went for the last two years.
FunBus
Roar Rookie
It's quite rare for a reasonably intelligent person to so quickly confirm the point of the person they're supposedly debating. 'Kiwis are the most hypocritical, ultra-defensive rugby community on the planet. They will do anything to distract from an incident of foul play by an AB.' 'But...but...look what 'England' did in west Africa in the 18th Century.'
FunBus
Roar Rookie
It was the general Kiwi reaction to it, Ken, particularly the players, management and media, that really soured relations. I’m not particularly ‘invested’ in the Lions since the 2001 tour, and as a pom, I’ve always found O’Driscoll a bit up himself, but it finished me as someone who could ever respect NZ rugby again. Even when the camera footage that came out a short time later proved conclusively the seriousness of the act, Henry, for example, simply said (and I paraphrase), ‘this is ridiculous, time to move on.’ It was also a pattern. On the England tour to NZ and Oz in 2003 before the RWC, Ali Williams stamped five consecutive times on Josh Lewsey’s face and head, causing many stitches and missing his eyes by millimetres. Kiwis ‘really wanted to win’ that match as well. The citing panel (two Kiwis and an Aussie) ruled it ‘accidental.’ No-one provided an explanation of how you ‘accidentally’ bring your boot down five consecutive times on the face and head of a prone player when the ball is 2 metres away. It’s why, on the 2005 Lions tour, Woodward brought a lawyer with him. Didn’t help, as the ‘citing officer’, a Saffa, ran to the airport so fast his feet barely touched the ground and Tana and ‘Kevvy’ were spared the ‘inconvenience’ of even having to bother to provide a defence.
FunBus
Roar Rookie
It’s not me that is spinning and lying. The reaction of the entire Kiwi rugby community to the incident was a disgrace. Whatever ‘Tana’ and ‘Kevvy’ may or may not have been trying to do in private (and it’s sweet that you take their claims as gospel), they made no public admittance of ANYTHING. It was difficult to get an admission out of the NZ management that it should have even been a penalty, let alone that one of the worst incidents of thuggery on a rugby pitch for a long time had been committed. Your ‘defence’ appears to be that the ‘it’s not tiddlywinks’ line was said by ‘Tana’ to defend himself during a previous bout of thuggery, but it may have been only lots of other Kiwis rather than Tana himself that used it to defend himself on this act of thuggery. I’m not going through every statement Umaga made at the time to verify this, so I’m happy to take your word for it. A bit of a weird ‘defence’ though. Probably, in the entire world, only a Kiwi could use this as some sort of mitigation for nearly putting an opposing player in a wheelchair. What’s the presence of Blair’s former spin doctor got to do with it? Are you suggesting that the incident wasn’t really that bad, but was ‘spun?’ If the Kiwis had treated the incident as any normal rugby community would, Campbell could have had nothing to say. It was the denial, and worse, sneering, that got everyone’s back up. It’s also worth remembering that Campbell and a lawyer were only brought by Woodward because of what Ali Willaims did (and got away with) in the 2003 match with England in Wellington. Come on Paulo, share your thoughts. Because the one thing you haven’t commented on yet is the incident itself.
jeznez
Roar Guru
I’m not a journalist so would never call myself one. Am familiar with The 42. I can’t see any reference to Fletcher Newell’s clean out of Scott Sio on that site. And certainly not on 20 March 2013.
Phantom
Roar Rookie
Call yourself a journalist. Try the42.ie 20 march 2013. Just so you understand, that is an Irish paper.
jeznez
Roar Guru
Strange that a google search doesn't show any of those reports. Phantom, I'm here to be convinced if you can share a link.
Phantom
Roar Rookie
And a number of independent overseas based newspapers.
Phantom
Roar Rookie
Yes they did as did the nzrfu at the time of the incident. Keep up.
Brendan NH Fan
Roar Rookie
But we have been told that women make better choices, both by the women in our lives and the media. So Foster must have been the right choice.
Brendan NH Fan
Roar Rookie
He has played Rugby a long time. Its not like he got a red card, got the suspension reduced for doing a course and came back and got another red card for a similar thing. I am not sure how a red 3 years ago is more important than the 40+ games since then when he hasn't.
Brendan NH Fan
Roar Rookie
its the rules changing because they realize that having your head hit is not the other person's fault all the time. He has got better and I don't think people would even care about a URC red card other than the ref bit.
Brendan NH Fan
Roar Rookie
He will be a big loss but its not Super Rugby so will be coming back just in time for the business end of games. His injury though should not be taken into account when it comes to the tackle. We went down this road 7-8 years ago with tackles in the air where how the injured person ended up determined who what at fault and what action should be taken.
Brendan NH Fan
Roar Rookie
Aki's was bad but what have others got for the same offence a few weeks. We seem to miss that part of the debates which is part of the problem with Swain. Is he the first person to do it, not at all. Is he the person to be carded in a game, not likely but very rarely happens. Being cited was all due to the media not the actual event or what other players who have done the same thing have got in the past.
Brendan NH Fan
Roar Rookie
But the issue in not coming through the game it is the contact. I wonder if Aki used that as a defense when asked why he felt his tackle was ok.
Brendan NH Fan
Roar Rookie
Alot of teams don't refer players to the citing commission. They say their bit after the game and let the citing offer decided. I think SARU have said will never refer anyone to the citing commission.
Brendan NH Fan
Roar Rookie
Swain's citing was as much about media as anything else. If the player doesn't get injured most wouldn't even known it happened. Once people bring up the players injuries as a reason for longer punishment they have stopped being impartial. What Swain did is what matters not what the result was otherwise if no one had got inquired does that make what Swain did ok. I think that is why Doran wasn't looked at which is why it backs up that it was media hype and the citing panel have to justify any punishment. If Newell wasn't a penalty and wasn't cited then Swains can't have been that bad, If Swain's was really bad and should have been really long then Newell should have been cited with a lower end of the same ban.