Australia may have another gripe with international rugby officialdom after Hurricanes forward Gareth Evans escaped with a warning for illegal treatment of Wallabies breakdown ace David Pocock.
Evans received his warning from the citing commissioner on Sunday for dragging on Pocock’s neck as he attempted to pull him off the ball in a ruck during the Brumbies’ upset 24-12 Super Rugby home win on Saturday night.
Super Rugby organiser SANZAAR says warnings can be issued by the citing commissioner for foul play incidents that are deemed very close to meeting the red-card threshold for a citing.
The Evans incident left Pocock in clear discomfort but drew only a penalty from referee Nick Briant.
Brumbies coach Dan McKellar took issue with it after the match and contrasted the penalty with last week’s controversial World Rugby one-match ban on high-leaping Wallabies fullback Israel Folau.
“The big one for me is the neck roll on Poey,” McKellar said.
“That’s just dangerous.
“We see Israel (Folau) get suspended for an accidental collision in the air and then we have one of the world’s best flankers with his head over the ball, twisted in an awkward (position). It’s really dangerous.”
Adding to a contentious week, Queensland coach Brad Thorn questioned the direction the game was taking after Reds players Jordan Petaia and Taniela Tupou were sin-binned for perceived dangerous tackles within a minute of each other in his team’s loss to the Blues on Friday.
“The game is in an interesting place, isn’t it,” Thorn said.
“I don’t know if that’s enjoyable for anyone.
“Everyone is talking about that at the moment, both sides of the Tasman. It’s interesting.
“Probably the No.1 thing, like for a lot of fans, coaches and players everywhere, it’s hurting the game. The game is getting hurt.
“If that’s what rugby is, where you slow things down … a lifting tackle where he didn’t drive him into the ground. And Taniela came up, his hands from what I saw were in front of him, and he went in hard and low … if you want to penalise but then yellow card as well?”
