Edinburgh hooker Ford, from Kelso, and Glasgow lock Gray were cited by independent commissioner Scott Nowland of Australia for a second-half incident during the 36-33 Pool B win over Samoa at St James’ Park.
Advertisement
Scotland are pondering an appeal but it appears likely that both Ford and Gray will miss Sunday’s quarter-final clash against the Wallabies at Twickenham.
Ireland’s Sean O’Brien has been banned for one week after he admitted committing an act of foul play in his team’s win against France.
Scotland’s already hard task of upsetting Australia in the quarter finals has assumed mission impossible status with the loss of two key forwards.
The disciplinary process and the suspensions meted out at the Rugby World Cup have become the most contentious issue at the tournament, with the general consensus that non-tier one nations have been penalised more harshly – well, non-tier one and Scotland.
“The Scotland arriving players, No. 5 [Jonny Gray] and No. 2 [Ross Ford] in an attempt to remove the threat to possession as per normal and in the dynamics lifted Samoa No.7’s legs and he tumbled over, however the player [was] supported on his hands throughout”. You know I think they are both mature enough and experienced enough to know that there is no point in them, you know, sulking about it as it would just affect the morale of the other players.
He said: “We’re disappointed for the two boys but for the rest of us we’ve all got a job to do. We feel it is tough on them”.
The episode has caused enormous disruption to Scotland’s preparations for a match in which they are 8/1 outsiders. “I don’t know who the people are doing the citings but they need a little bit of empathy with the game because you just need consistency”.
‘If we lose the breakdown game and the physical battle there, we’re fighting an uphill battle, ‘ declared back-row star David Denton, who insists that the increasingly omnipresent threat of being cited retrospectively should be of no concern to anyone in this squad.
“‘Cheiks’ is good at getting a team motivated, making a team think that he is right behind them, which his is”, said Hines.
Advertisement
Mark Dodson, Scottish Rugby’s chief executive, added: “We hold Ross and Jonny in very high regard and as a result will be launching a robust appeal to challenge their suspensions, which we feel are unduly harsh”. We have two sessions today so they will maybe do one of the two.
