Wallabies great Morgan Turinui has demanded World Rugby provide an explanation for the contentious refereeing decision that saw the British and Irish Lions claim a series victory against Australia on Saturday night in Melbourne.
The Wallabies swept the Lions away in the first-half, at one point taking a 23-5 lead, with James Slipper, Jake Gordon and Tom Wright all crossing the try line in the first 40 minutes.
But Andy Farrell’s side muscled their way back into the contest. Tries from Dan Sheehan, Tom Curry, Huw Jones and Tadhg Beirne saw the visitors move to within just two points of Australia with 20 minutes left on the clock.
Hugo Keenan would drive over from 10 metres out in the dying embers of the game, sealing the victory, and the series, for the Lions. However there was controversy, as referee Andrea Piardi, sent the try upstairs to be checked by the TMO, who found no issue with a contentious clear out in the phase of play prior to the try.
Jac Morgan of Wales had cleared before Keenan touched down for a try. He had followed James Ryan into the breakdown and removed Carlo Tizzano from the contact area.
The Aussie had fallen away from the scramble of bodies, clutching his head, after Morgan had appeared to get his shoulder under Tizzano’s neck.
A former Wallabies legend has been left fuming for Jac Morgan’s (right) clearout on Carlo Tizzano (left) in the dying embers of the Lions against the Wallabies at the MCG on Saturday
In the resulting play, Hugo Keenan (right) would go on to score and seal the match and the series for the Lions
The ball was subsequently recycled and sent out to Keenan on the left side of the pitch but the Wallabies players were incecensed about both the force and manner in which the Welsh flanker had cleared out the Western Force flanker.
‘That decision is 100% completely wrong. The referee got it wrong,’ Turinui said after the game.
‘His two assistant referees got it wrong.’
Turinui, who won 20 caps for the Wallabies, then explained that the referee needed to be brought before World Rugby’s Match Official Manager, Joel Jutge, to explain why the contentious decision was allowed to stand.
‘Joel Jutge, the head of the referees, is out here on a junket. He needs to haul those referees in and ask for a please explain.
‘Dan Herbert, the chair of Australian rugby and if I’m Phil Waugh the CEO, I’m sorry I’m asking for a please explain.
‘He did have a good game, but the refereeing group, when it counted, got the match-defining decision completely wrong.
‘It’s a point of law. It’s in black and white. It’s not about bias. It’s not about colouring. ‘There’s nothing there. Get away from the fact it’s a wrong call. It’s a penalty sanction. It’s not a yellow card. It happens.
Wallabies legend Morgan Turinui (pictured) has slammed the decision by the referees to allow the try and called for answers from World Rugby
Morgan had come off the bench during the match, and his work at the breakdown was deemed legal following a review by the TMO
‘The try must be disallowed and we should be going one-all to Sydney.’
He wasn’t the only person left seething by the decision, with Joe Schmidt lamenting the late TMO call.
‘Everyone can make their own decision on that, you just have to read law 9.20, and I guess you just have to listen to the description from the referee, and then watch the vision,’ Schmidt said.
He added: ‘Our perspective is, we felt it was a decision that doesn’t really live up to the big player safety push that they’re talking about. You cannot hit someone above the level of the shoulders, and there’s no binding with the left arm, the hands on the ground.
‘So that’s what we’ve seen, and we’ve watched a number of replays from different angles, and so it is what it is. We just have to accept it.’
Andy Farrell, as expected, saw nothing wrong with the incident.
‘I spoke to Joe Schmidt and he felt it was a penalty, but I just saw it as a clearout,’ the Lions coach explained.
‘I don’t know where Jac Morgan was supposed to go – it looked like a rugby incident to me. I think it was the right decision in the end.’
Joe Schmidt has also fumed at the decision, claiming that the decision did not take into account for World Rugby’s push to protect players
Wallabies captain Harry Wilson (right) remonstrated with the referee after the decision was made
Wallabies captain Harry Wilson then explained that the decision left his team-mate, Tizzano, with a ‘sore’ neck.
‘Obviously I saw a shoulder to the neck, Carlo was pretty sore after it,’ he added.
Schmidt, though, fumed that the Wallabies should have got a decision at the end of the match, adding that he was left ‘gutted’ following the refereeing call.
‘I couldn’t quite believe that we didn’t get a decision at the end,’ he said.
‘But, you know, that’s the wicked backlash that sport can have sometimes.
‘I think it was described as arriving at the same time. And we can all see that’s not the case. And we can all see clear contact with the back of the neck.
‘You know, might be a different decision on another day and another time.
‘I’ve been gutted a few times in my coaching career, but that is right up there.
‘I felt we earned more than what we got.’
Sports columnists in the UK including The Telegraph’s Oliver Brown, accused Tizzano of ‘diving’ during the match, while also telling Australia to ‘stop moaning’.
Others on social media questioned the acts of the Wallabies players, with one writing: ‘Tizzano with a dive straight out of a Brazilian football league. Get in!’
Another wrote: ‘Tizzano should be facing a ban for that.
‘Shameful behaviour, diving and rolling around like a toddler.’
‘Tizzano went full Hollywood,’ wrote another.
But others online were less sympathetic to Jac Morgan, with one writing: ‘So blatantly a contact straight to the head. They didn’t arrive at the same time… Tizzano had hands on the ball.’
