Outrage as All Blacks captain gets away with ugly cheap shot

The All Blacks’ nice guy act didn’t even last 46 minutes at the Rugby World Cup with captain Kieran Read busted for a shocking hit.

Kieran Read is in hot water.

Eagle-eyed rugby commentators are turning up the heat on All Blacks captain Kieran Read, accusing him of a “clear professional foul around the neck” during his team’s win over South Africa on Saturday night.

Just a day after Wallabies coach Michael Cheika hit out at World Rugby’s decision to cite winger Reece Hodge for his shoulder charge on Fiji’s Peceli Yato following outrage on social media, the Rugby World Cup governing body is now under pressure to explain why it took no action against Read for his clothesline hit on South Africa’s Pieter-Steph du Toit.

Hodge became the first player at the World Cup to be cited in the match review process, despite the TMO looking over his incident with Yato and giving it the all clear.

World Rugby failed to take the same action with Read, despite video emerging of his ugly, off the ball tackle around du Toit’s neck.

In the 45th minute, Springbok flanker du Toit attempted to tackle halfback Aaron Smith after the All Blacks had won a lineout — but Read was spotted reaching out and snatching the big Springboks flanker around the neck.

It was missed by the on-field referee and assistant referees.

Journalist Brenden Nel, who has 14,000 followers on Twitter, has questioned why World Rugby didn’t cite Read from the lineout incident in the opening game at Yokohama.

Watch Kieran Read. Nothing given. pic.twitter.com/MLqVgudSoD

— Patrick Murphy (@PM8490) September 21, 2019

Wonder what the @allblacks say about this? Clear professional foul, around the neck, nowhere near the ball? Will @worldrugby do anything? Probably just bury their heads in the sands. It's their all blacks after all... https://t.co/yU8ynC3ZNN

— Brenden Nel (@BrendenNel) September 22, 2019

Nel’s post sparked a heated debate on Twitter, but the All Blacks skipper is still free to play Canada in the All Blacks’ next Group B match on October 2.

Read said after the game his team showed impressive discipline, perhaps forgetting about his illegal professional foul.

“Discipline was always going to be a massive thing for us. South Africans love to build pressure through those penalties and with a kicker like [Handre] Pollard he showed right from the outset he could kick from 50 metres,” Read said after the game.

“It was a conscious decision from us to make sure we didn’t give away too many penalties and we probably haven’t been as smart throughout this whole year and we were certainly at a different level today.”

Kieran Read is a protected species.

Read even called referee Jerome Garces “gutless” during the first half after the Springboks themselves committed a professional foul at the breakdown by stopping the Kiwis from releasing the ball during a try-scoring opportunity.

Garces kept his cards in his pocket after a professional foul looked to deny an All Blacks try in the 21st minute.

Richie Mo’unga was tackled five metres short of the line by Boks winger Makazole Mapimpi who infringed play by lying over the ball.

Ryan Crotty then had a pass knocked down from the ruck with the All Blacks on attack and numbers out wide. Garces and TMO Graham Hughes ruled an infringing play in the ruck following the initial tackle on Mo’unga but didn’t label it a professional foul.

After watching the replay of the incident, Garces decided to award just a penalty to the All Blacks.

“It’s a clear penalty against 11,” Garces said.

According to Spark Sport commentator Scotty Stevenson, Read was fuming with the call.

“Kieran Read’s words if you did not hear them were ‘that’s pretty gutless’,” Stevenson said.

The non-call seemed to be the moment that flicked a switch for an All Blacks side that were dominated in the opening 20 minutes.