Rugby World Cup 2019: Wallabies rule out appeal against Reece Hodge ban, fearing he could cop more time
The Wallabies are convinced everyone’s got it in for them at the Rugby World Cup but warn their rivals that it is only going to make them stronger after ruling out an appeal against the Reece Hodge suspension.
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The Wallabies have ruled out lodging an appeal against Reece Hodge’s farcical three-match World Cup suspension, fearing he could end up getting an even longer ban if things went badly at the hearing even though they maintain he was harshly judged.
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CHEIKA: WORLD RUGBY ISN’T LISTENING
The mandatory penalty for the type of high tackle that Hodge was found guilty of making on Fiji’s Peceli Yato is six weeks but the Australian winger got a reduced penalty because it was deemed unintentional and he has a clean record.
That rules him out of Australia’s remaining pool games but he will be back in time for the quarterfinals so after considering their options, the Wallabies decided to cop it on the chin.
“What's the legal term?” a frustrated Wallaby coach Michael Cheika said.
“We deliberated, yes, with our QC and several other legal minds around Australia and we've come to the conclusion that we won't be appealing.
“If they (the judiciary) can't see that tackle doesn't meet the red card threshold on first view, I worry a little bit about going back there and getting more, just a bit of a show of force, I suppose.
“After speaking with Reece, we decided not to do it.”
The Australians have made no secret of their annoyance that Hodge was rubbed out while plenty of players at the World Cup have got away with much worse and it’s created a siege mentality.
Hodge apologised on Instagram on Saturday for his accidental high tackle on Fiji’s Peceli Yato, explaining “there was never any malice in the contact and any suggestions to that effect are simply false. Anyone who knows me will attest to that.”
Hodge also spoke out about the social media posts slamming Rugby Australia, the coaching staff and even his own so-called ignorance for not having studied the “high tackle decision-making framework”.
“As rugby players, we are aware that contact to the head in a tackle is detrimental to the safety of our opposition and will be met with some form of sanction,” he said.
“Subsequently, we are coached to tackle below shoulder height. We never intend to make contact with the head or neck and I never want to hurt anyone.”
Cheika is insisting that the saga hasn’t disrupted the team’s preparations for the crunch match with Wales though he does think it could provide some added motivation come game time.
“From the second it happened and we knew that he was going to be cited we sat down to the guys and said it’s not going to distract us from what we need to do,” Cheika said.
“If you love the game and you’re in the World Cup and you're representing your country you want to have a bit of that (emotion) going. Maybe not going crazy or anything, but it can make you do things that maybe you didn't think you could do and this will be a great canvas for us to show that we can do a few things that people expect us to do.
“I don’t know that I can put a clear Oxford dictionary definition behind it … I’m not that logic style of person who says this is made up of this, this, and this and it makes it whole.
“It’s just feelings. Feeling are feelings, you just feel like that. When you feel hard done by and one of your players is so upset because he’s not playing, yeah, I suppose you feel like that.”
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Originally published as Rugby World Cup 2019: Wallabies rule out appeal against Reece Hodge ban, fearing he could cop more time