French winger Remy Grosso was taken to hospital after being injured in a tackle that left him with a double facial fracture and Jacques Brunel fuming.
“The injury is quite serious and the tackle was dangerous. I think that the way he was done by the All Blacks pair was illegal,” said Brunel, urging officials to review the incident.
There was eerie silence form the citing commissioner Freek Burger (South Africa) in the aftermath of the game, that is until now with World Rugby issuing a statement saying that the Tu’ungafassi tackle “came close to but did not warrant the player receiving a red card.”
The referee claimed it was a clash of heads and if so both players should have exited for HIAs. So with a professional referee and a TMO, they somewhat contrived not only to make a mess of the penalty decision but also the HIA.
Citing commissioner warning for Ofa Tu'ungafasi, so according to @WorldRugby his tackle on Grosso was worth a yellow card. They agree with Luke Pearce that Sam Cane was penalty only. Grosso's body position again brought up as mitigation #NZLvFRA pic.twitter.com/1DXHvpdoHa
— Paul Eddison (@pauleddison) June 12, 2018
Judge for yourself but I doubt you will see a clearer red card offence which makes World Rugby’s decision to issue a warning and not a ban all the more baffling. Were the player not wearing an All Black jersey, one wonders would the decision been different.
https://twitter.com/bencoles\_/status/1005390789013360640