Joe Moody to pay price for cheap shot on Kurtley Beale; refereeing blunders revealed

SANZAAR’S citing commissioner has managed what one Kiwi referee, two Kiwi touch judges and a Kiwi television match official failed to do — spot Joe Moody’s cheap shot on Kurtley Beale.

Crusaders prop Joe Moody has been cited for alleged foul play after striking NSW Waratahs centre Kurtley Beale.

FORMER Wallaby Stephen Hoiles has retracted his call for Australian players to get better at “cheating” but hasn’t backed down an inch from his ‘don’t get mad, get even’ advice for Aussie rugby to start beating New Zealand rivals again.

Hoiles’ heat-of-the-moment phrasing came moments after a controversial victory by the Crusaders over the Waratahs in Christchurch, in which the defending Super Rugby champs came from 29-0 down to beat the Tahs 31-29.

The game was packed with contentious moments and none more than Crusaders prop Joe Moody elbowing Kurtley Beale in the throat, off the ball, immediately before taking a pass to score the home team’s first try.

MATCH REPORT: Waratahs suffer heartbreaking defeat

Crusaders prop Joe Moody has been cited for alleged foul play after striking NSW Waratahs centre Kurtley Beale.

The Waratahs Michael Wells is spear tackled. Ref call: Nothing

Crusaders No.7 Matt Todd pushing against prop. Ref call: Penalty try to Crusaders

Crusaders flanker Matt Todd hand on the ball. Ref call: NSW knock-on.

It was missed by referee Ben O’Keefe, the TMO and the sideline officials but it was finally picked up by the SANZAAR citing commissioner, who deemed Moody’s elbow to have met the red card threshold.

Coming 15 hours too late, Moody’s citation provided no comfort to the Waratahs, who would have likely gone on from 29-0 to win the match if the Crusaders played the last 45 minutes with 14 men.

Instead, Moody’s try was followed by four more and the Kiwi streak over Aussie teams extended to 39 games.

The Waratahs were hard hit by injury, but far from blameless. An inability to exit their quarter effectively saw them only get 28 per cent territory for the match.

But on top of the Moody miss, the performance of O’Keefe and his team was widely criticised.

After the first ten minutes, NSW were hammered 15 -4in the penalty count and lost two men to the sin bin.

But several clear Crusaders’ infringements were overlooked; including a tip-tackle at the final siren, Matt Todd illegally scrummaging prior to a penalty try for the Crusaders, Moody raising his elbow into Beale’s throat a second time in the lead-up to a try and NSW getting pinged for a knock-on despite Todd’s hand in the ruck causing it.

Any one of those could have changed the complexion of the match.

Post-game, FoxSports panellists expressed their frustrations at the refereeing, including Hoiles who said: “The reality is, we’ve got to start cheating better.”

Hoiles said on Sunday his wording was wrong but he maintains the sentiment that Australian teams have to fight fire with fire.

Just seen the replay of the #CRUvWAR game. That Joe Moody elbow is one of the dirtiest things I’ve ever seen on a rugby field (and that’s saying something for a Crusaders player) and the fact that the ref and TMO missed it is unacceptable. Hope he gets 8+ weeks.

— Michael Cole (@michaelcole87) May 12, 2018

I reckon the Joe Moody Elbow charge Takes a few cakes !!!

— HvW (@hendrivanwyk13) May 12, 2018

Joe Moody cited for his off-the-ball elbow of Kurtley Beale. Too little, too late to help the Waratahs, however.

— Wayne Keith Smith (@WayneKeithSmith) May 12, 2018

“Cheating was the wrong word to use and you should never cheat,” Hoiles.

“But the point I tried to clarify straight after was the word should have been craftier and I one hundred cent stand by that - we need to be craftier.

“It is about gamesmanship. You are talking about Matt Todd fighting with his hands for that ball, you’re talking about that scrum where he subtly slides up onto the NSW prop.

“These are things I am not complaining about. I played footy, I am not a cleanskin. They’re just things we need to do be doing, too. Kiwi teams test rivals so you have to be your absolute best as a player, and they do it to the referee too.

“Richie McCaw was a master of pushing a ref to the line and he admits that was his goal every game. He was a legend of the game because of it. And we don’t have enough players like that.

Hoiles stressed he was talking about the professional game only.

“I coach my son’s under eights and we make sure we play fair, say thanks to the ref, shake your opponents’ hands and that is very important,” Hoiles said.

“​But at the professional level you need to understand the laws are there to be pushed to the absolute limit, and we don’t do it enough.”

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Originally published as Joe Moody to pay price for cheap shot on Kurtley Beale; refereeing blunders revealed