World reacts to ‘disgraceful’ Bledisloe Cup eye gouge

THE shock decision not to take any action against All Blacks grub Owen Franks has been met with outrage around the world.

Farce.

OWEN Franks may have been cleared in a shock decision by SANZAAR, but the court of public opinion has delivered a damning verdict against the All Blacks grub.

The New Zealand prop was not even cited in a match review by SANZAAR officials despite footage clearly showing he twice smothered Wallabies lock Kane Douglas’ face with his hand in an act that has been labelled a deliberate eye gouge by some rugby commentators.

The shock decision following the All Blacks’ 29-9 Bledisloe Cup-sealing victory, which will allow Franks to play against Argentina in New Zealand on September 10, has been met with outrage around the world.

Pretty obvious.

Wallabies coach Michael Cheika had hoped action would be taken after Franks appeared to move his fingers around the eyes of Douglas during a maul in the seventh minute of the match in full view of French referee Romain Poite, who took no action.

Ireland rugby legend Brian O’Driscoll led the chorus of outrage against SANZAAR’s failure to protect its players.

This is an absolute sham @WorldRugby ???! Makes a mockery of citing. If nothing comes of this it's a farce. https://t.co/sDr92ggzcU

— Brian O'Driscoll (@BrianODriscoll) August 28, 2016

Shocking that Owen Franks isn't even being cited re alleged gouging incident. Match commissioners must review NZ matches like this... 🙈🙉.

— Chris Foy (@FoyChris) August 28, 2016

I wonder what Tomas Francis makes of the Owen Franks incident?

— Simon Thomas (@simonrug) August 28, 2016

Disgraceful non citing of Owen Franks proof positive that ABs play under an entirely different set of laws to rest of the rugby community

— Brendan gallagher (@gallagherbren) August 28, 2016

So what exactly WAS Owen Franks doing to Douglas's face then? Applying ointment?

— Rob Houwing (@RobHouwing) August 28, 2016

Test of the NZ cloak of invisibility. TV picks up seemingly horrible gouge by Owen Franks, far worse that two incidents in UK last season

— Stephen Jones (@stephenjones9) August 27, 2016

@ACrimTradeUnion @WorldRugby Owen Franks? Just caught up with that. Dreadful stuff. Should be sat down for the rest of the year.

— Mike Thorpe (@MikeThorpeTVNZ) August 28, 2016

Breaking news; Spec savers to sponsor @WorldRugby with a limited edition Owen Franks glasses for all referees https://t.co/Gg7XejOHKe

— Dan Petrie (@DGPetrie) August 28, 2016

just had another look at the Owen Franks incident. he's already got his hands on Douglas' shoulders. it's surely an attempted gouge #NZLvAUS

— Vince Rugari (@VinceRugari) August 28, 2016

Cheika said the contact was clear for all to see.

“We saw it at the time,” Cheika fumed.

“I’m sure the match review will pick that up. It was pretty open, it would be pretty hard for the match review guy to miss.”

All Blacks coach Steve Hansen believed the right decision was made.

“You’ve got to be really, really, careful until you see all the views. Social media, I think, were the people who alerted everyone to it and they certainly don’t get all the views,” Hansen said Sunday.

“There’s a process and that process has been followed.” Cheika, who complained of a high penalty count against the Wallabies, said he had complained to world referees’ boss Alain Rolland “about the treatment to our captain and our players by Romain Poite”.

Apart from the Franks incident, Cheika was baffled why lock Adam Coleman was yellow-carded for a late charge on Ben Smith while All Blacks hooker Dane Coles was only penalised for a forearm blow to Scott Fardy’s head.

“Maybe one person’s head is more valued than another person’s head,” Cheika said.

“Maybe that’s the way things are rolling at the moment.” Australian news media reported that the Australian Rugby Union planned to lay a complaint with World Rugby that Hansen had breached the rules by having a private meeting with Poite before the Wellington Test.

But Hansen denied there was any meeting.

Free to play.

“It’s quite sad that that’s come out because it’s not true,” he said. “I certainly didn’t have a meeting with Romain Poite. We don’t meet the ref, we haven’t for 18 to 24 months because it’s just a waste of time.” Hansen confirmed he did, however, have talks with assistant referee Jaco Peyper, at Peyper’s request, to discuss points in All Blacks’ play after the Sydney Test won by New Zealand 42-8 the previous week.

Although the Wallabies have been comprehensively beaten in both Tests, Cheika was reluctant to give too much praise to the All Blacks, who are rebuilding after several senior players retired from Test rugby after the World Cup final last year.

“At this stage there’s been the two games with us this year and they’ve beaten us by a handsome margin in both so against us, yes,” he said when asked if the All Blacks would dominate the championship.

“The rest of the games will be decided when they go up against those opponents. There’s no point trying to predict what’s going to happen.” Hansen, when asked if Australia were not as good now as they were when beaten in the World Cup final last year, was reluctant to criticise.

“On the scoreboard it looks like we’ve done it pretty easy but I don’t think anyone would say it was easy,” he said.

“The skill level of our guys was really good under extreme pressure at times. At the moment that’s where we’ve got a little bit of an edge. But I don’t want to sit here and bag Australia, they’re one of our best friends.

— with AFP

Originally published as World reacts to ‘disgraceful’ Bledisloe Cup eye gouge