“The only way you can get there is through clambering over the top, and then that creates a response, people try and pull them out of the way and the only thing they can use is the head area”, he said.
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Australia’s many problems started at the set piece and they now face a decision over whether they can continue with hooker and captain Stephen Moore, whose lineout throwing is a weakness.
Cry me a river, Michael Cheika.
The Wallabies slumped to a 29-9 loss to the All Blacks and their 14th straight Bledisloe Cup loss on Saturday night and it wasn’t long before Williams made the big twitter hit on the maligned Australia coach.
“I’m a firm believer that we’re here to help the referee because it’s a hard game to ref”, Hansen said.
Sydney’s Daily Telegraph took the side of Cheika and wrote: “Any meeting of coaches from one team with referees demands the Wallabies be invited to join in”.
Hansen said he had nothing to add regarding Cheika’s strong post-match comments on the incident.
“I have seen the footage and I agree with the independent person that there is nothing to answer for”, Hansen said.
World Rugby laws state that a player can not make “contact with the eye area”, while two different angles suggest Franks touched Douglas’s eyes on one occasion, then grabs him around the neck a few seconds later.
The Wallabies had been hammered 42-8 last week in Sydney as the All Blacks moved the ball at high pace with near flawless execution and the Australian side had been pilloried by their media and fans. But they expressed that determination through unprofitable aggression, losing Adam Coleman to a yellow card in the first half for a late shoulder charge on All Blacks fullback Ben Smith. Bernard Foley, moved from flyhalf to inside center, kicked two before Reece Hodge, who made his test debut as a 16th-minute replacement for the injured Adam Ashley-Cooper, kicked another from halfway.
The new-look All Blacks player leadership has negotiated its sternest examination since Richie McCaw moved on, believes coach Steve Hansen. “So they were going to come and bring whatever they had to bring and they did that”.
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Hansen, however, bristled at the report and said he had not met with Poite at all before the clash, which also doubled as the second match in the trans-Tasman Bledisloe Cup series. “I think it’s probably better if I leave what Cheik has said there”.
