The All Blacks have trounced Nambia 71-3 but it came at a significant cost with prop Ethan de Groot suffering a red card in the final 10 minutes and facing a likely ban.
De Groot went high in a tackle on 71 minutes and was given a yellow by referee Luke Pearce. It was upgraded to a red while he waited on the bench and he became the first All Black red carded at a World Cup.
All Blacks coach Ian Foster wasn’t convinced that it was red worthy and made seemingly made reference to a controversial moment in the France vs Uruguay game a day earlier.
“We will have a look at it, there was a lot of shoulder on shoulder in that contact, but we will compare it to something that happened yesterday and see what comes from it,” he said on BBC 5 Live Sports Extra.
Without elaborating it’s thought Foster was referring to a yellow given to Frenchman Romain Taofifenua in Thursday’s win over Uruguay.
Foster, speaking to Sky NZ, added: “It’s frustrating getting a card. We’ll have a look at it. Experience has told me to breathe a bit and have a good look at it. There’s a lot of shoulder on shoulder – we’ll have a look overnight and see what happens.”
“It will probably be three weeks,” said All Blacks legend John Kirwan on the Sky coverage, while former Wallaby Sekope Kepu agreed.
“It’s very unfortunate,” said Kepu. “It’s hard with those tackles. You’re upright, he’s coming at you and all you can do is try to tackle him. Unfortunately he had his arms kind of tucked and that’s why he’s been given the red card.”
Former All Black Israel Dagg agreed it was red worthy/
Ïf you look at the mitigating factors there was a lot of the chest still available to Ethan de Groot to drop in. It was probably bad intentions from the outset.”
Dagg questioned if it might be better to replace de Groot in the squad, although the team is already without prop Tyrel Lomax, who has an injury.
The Kiwis, who lost their opening match to France, scored 11 tries. Damian McKenzie added 16 points.
Cam Roigard and McKenzie scored two tries each while Leicester Fainga’anuku, Anton Lienert-Brown, Ethan De Groot, Dalton Papali’i, David Havili, Caleb Clarke and Rieko Ioane also scored.
(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)
Roigard was impressive despite the quality of the opposition and helped assist three other tries to give Ian Foster some thinking to do in deciding who is No.2 behind Aaron Smith.
“Pretty surreal, the atmosphere was outstanding we are fortunate that our forwards were dominant giving me a good platform to play off,” Roigard said.
“But credit to Namibia they showed a lot of heart and passion.
“I suppose myself and Damien McKenzie have had some training groups together, we are working out how we like to play and his attacking play suits mine so I really enjoyed it tonight.”
All Blacks skipper Ardie Savea noted the discipline issues at the finish.
“It is a good feeling getting the win after the last result. I am very proud of the men having a good week of preparation and getting the win,” said Savea.
“Still a few areas of improvement, Namibia put us under pressure, but we will work on it.
“Our discipline in defence is one we gave a few penalties away and we want to eliminate those and be ruthless in that area.”
scrum
Roar Rookie
Firstly Owen Farrell was not cleared by the Citing Commissioner, the CC was not involved at all. A RC on the field goes direct to Judiciary and the Judiciary erred in their decision which was appealed by WR. The CitingCommissioner is not connected to the Judiciary. Once again you are making decisions without all the evidence, that decision making would not stand up anywhere. And have you read the Head contact framework, there has been so many inaccurate comments because of lack of knowledge.
HenryHoneyBalls
Roar Rookie
Sorry mate not having it at all. You can buy the explanation if you like but I dont. Owen Farrell was also cleared by the citing comissioners which we all know was wrong, they are also wrong on this one. Jean Kleyn has just done a really obvious head contact tackle in the Romania game given as a penalty only too. Very dodgy.
Olly
Roar Rookie
That is not wrapping an arm. You don't wrap with your elbow out like that...
Bliksem
Roar Rookie
They don’t have to question intent, one was an action to make a tackle the other was a shoulder charge. Intent plays no role, the action to wrap the arm or not do. They judge it on the facts.
Olly
Roar Rookie
“the officials had enough evidence to satisfy them that an attempt to make a legal tackle was made.” His intentions of trying to make a legitimate take is irrelevant as he did not make a legal tackle. I also like the way you think the French tackler arm is not tucked….it is a shoulder charge. Literally did shoulder charge drills in league exactly like that shoulder charge.
Leroy14
Roar Rookie
It was shoulder to his head.
Bliksem
Roar Rookie
I also struggled with your rabbit. Above I argued that legality of the action is relevant and never used the word intent.
Olly
Roar Rookie
What are you rabbit on about. I corrected you on intention as it is not relevant and pointed out inconsistency issues as the problem in the game. I said nothing about Farrell.
Jacko
Roar Rookie
And I would drop Mounga. Never been the player we thought he would be.
scrum
Roar Rookie
WR has released a statement supporting both the TMO and the Citing Commissioner. This decision was arrived at by 2 independent parties who had access to more video evidence than yourself. In the past this evidence has not always been released. As I stated when you see replays during the game different camera angles can produce different evidence. In their statement WR specifically referred to the extra camera angles available to the TMO and Citing Commissioner. However it’s very difficult to convince those driven by their own personal biases.
HenryHoneyBalls
Roar Rookie
Lol because you can see the head contact in the actual match footage, I also saw it in real time in the game. It isnt difficult to see it. The TMO messed up, not for the first time Ben Whitehouse has come to an odd conclusion in this world cup. It was a very very odd conclusion. Kriel was upright, entered the tackle with force and there was head contact, thats a yellow minimum with possible mitigation. If there was video evidence that definitely showed there was no head contact it would have been released.
Bliksem
Roar Rookie
They don’t do consider the legality of the action regardless of the intent. From the Owen F second hearing “The panel at the second hearing noted that the first panel did not consider Farrell’s failure to wrap, therefore determining that his actions were “always illegal”. That in turn meant that mitigation should not have been considered in this instance, thereby rendering Jamie George’s push on Basham towards Farrell – the reason the red card was initially overturned – as irrelevant.”
Olly
Roar Rookie
I would drop BB..he is not the same player.
scrum
Roar Rookie
If you had not noticed various camera angles can give an entirely different view. So if there was definite head contact why did both the TMO and Citing Commissioner have the same opinion. And the Citing Commissioner has quite often cited players the Match Officials did not, they act entirely independently. You are making judgments on limited evidence compared to both those parties. It’s like being on a jury and making a decision when you have only been in court for half the trial, now that would go down well.
Olly
Roar Rookie
'attempt to make a legal tackle' the laws and direction from WR law variation are clear that intention is not a factor. Intending to make a tackle correctly is not to be considered. Both tackles are illegal tackles. Both tackles have the same outcome. Both tackles have a second defender. WR has a ref/laws problem and it is being shown as clear as day over the first two weekends of the game. The world is seeing the problem. And this extends to inconsistent generally across the game.....just look at last Fiji game...
HenryHoneyBalls
Roar Rookie
You only need one camera angle to see there was head contact.
FunBus
Roar Rookie
When you say he was ‘attempting to wrap’ do you mean humming a song from 50 Cent? It’s not my genre of music, but I think that’s spelt ‘rap.’
FunBus
Roar Rookie
That injury was caused by the way he hit the ground. You know, after the AB prop tucked his arm in and collected him in the head with his shoulder.
FunBus
Roar Rookie
The French player also connected with the upper bicep rather than shoulder showing that at least there was a poor attempt to wrap.
FunBus
Roar Rookie
:laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: Unless it’s Farrell. In which case the fact that England even had anyone defending him at the hearing was the height of ‘arrogance’ and we must all ‘think of the kiddies’ and ‘the good of the game.’