Dan Sheehan faces a disciplinary hearing after the British and Irish Lions hooker was cited for a potential incident of foul play involving Tom Lynagh in the third Test defeat to Australia.
Sheehan appeared to make direct head contact with his shoulder to Lynagh as he entered a ruck at speed in an attempt to clear him out.
His action appeared to go unspotted by the matchday officials, though the Wallabies fly half soon failed a head injury assessment (HIA), ending his involvement in Sydney before half time.
The incident will now be considered by World Rugby’s on-duty Independent Foul Play Review Committee (FPRC) on Sunday to determine if Sheehan’s action merited sanction. The citing relates to Law 9.20 (a) – a player must not charge into a ruck or maul.
“I haven’t watched that back,” Lions head coach Andy Farrell said of the Sheehan clearout. “There are all sorts of rugby incidents that we can pull apart. I’ve seen quite a few more incidents as well. We’ll always go through the right channels when that’s concerned.”
Australia boss Joe Schmidt also admitted that he had not seen the Sheehan incident live post-match.
“I’ve got massive respect for Dan,” he said. “There’s a few things like that that will happen in a really physical contest.
“For us with Tom, he is still a young kid and we’ll try to look after him and make sure that he’s fully fit on the back of getting that knock. But I had a good chat to him after the game and he’s pretty resilient.
“In live, we didn’t see [the] incident, and it was probably a little bit later that we got a glimpse of it, and that’s all I’ve seen so far.
“I’d rather not comment on it until I’ve seen it but there’s always a difficulty for a TMO, I guess. He’s watching in the main, the TV broadcast and then if he doesn’t pick it up there, then he doesn’t access the other angles because everything’s happening so quickly.”
A 22-12 win on a chaotic night at Accor Stadium saw the Wallabies avoid a 3-0 series whitewash and salvage pride.
