Wallabies’ backrower Carlo Tizzano warned to stay off social media amid ‘online abuse’ following controversy at MCG against the Lions
Wallabies’ coach Joe Schmidt has stepped in to protect Carlo Tizzano after he was hounded off social media by persistent abuse after his role in the dramatic finish to the second Test.
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Wallabies backrower Carlo Tizzano has been off social media all week as the fallout from Saturday’s controversial ending to the second Test against the British and Irish Lions continues.
Coach Joe Schmidt admitted the replacement flanker has “had a really tough week” after copping intense criticism from the Northern Hemisphere after he was denied a penalty following a contentious late Jac Morgan clean-out.
The coach also used physics and Newton’s Laws of Motion in waging an impassioned defence of Tizzano, five days after the most controversial ever ending to a Wallabies vs. Lions Test.
Former Lions captain Sam Warburton accused Tizzano of milking a penalty when he was sent sprawling backwards after being hit by Morgan, while ex-England international James Haskell said he should have been sent off.
“That should have been red carded, because that is utter crap,” Haskell said on The Good, the Bad and the Rugby Podcast this week.
“There is no physical way to clear out a player that is that low over the ball.”
But his most recent Instagram post, made a few days before the second Test at the MCG, has been flooded with comments from angry rugby fans, including gifs of people jumping off diving boards and one of a soccer player writhing on the ground in fake agony.
“He’s had a really tough week, Carlo,” Schmidt said on Thursday. “He’s copped a lot of online abuse.”
The coach confirmed he had urged the 25-year-old to stay off his phone.
“Not this week he’s not (been on social media),” he said. “I’ve advised Carlo to stay away from the media full stop and the opinions that are out there.”
Tizzano wasn’t named in the match day 23 for the dead rubber third Test at Accor Stadium this weekend, with Fraser McReight starting at open side, and Langi Gleeson the only backrower on a 5-3 split on the bench.
But Schmidt launched a passionate defence of the Western Force star, with a throwback to high school physics thrown in for good measure.
“There were just over 54 Gs of direct force that went through the neck, along with almost 22 hundred revs of rotational force, which is enough to cause serious injury,” Schmidt said. “Not to a rugby player who’s as well conditioned as Carlo, but he’s probably best left to take a deep breath.
“I think we’re all aware of Newton’s Third Law, that for every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction.
“When that force hits him and the speed of his head collapsing down, he recoiled out the back of the ruck.
“And I don’t think he wanted to recoil like that, but that’s the nature of force, that there’s an equal and opposite reaction.”
The game’s other controversial moment came in the first half, when hooker Dan Sheehan took a tap from a penalty five metres out from Australia’s line and dived over Dave Porecki and James Slipper to score.
There were questions raised about the legality and safety of the aerial tactic, with Schmidt suggesting a Lions player – captain, Maro Itoje – was off-side when Sheehan tapped it.
“The frustration is that there’s a guy off-side when they tap it, and it would’ve been great if they’d come back and played the scrum and maybe had a chance for us to clarify if that’s dangerous play or is it acceptable,” he said.
“And if it’s acceptable, we try to come up with a plan to defend it.
“We’ve got two tacklers who are underneath Dan as he goes over, and we really need to get maybe another one in behind.
“But then it’s going to be very hard to avoid head contact because he’s head first.
“The worry is what kids see on TV, what club players see on TV, they tend to try to emulate.”
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