All Blacks great demands answers from World Rugby who failed to ‘defend’ crucial B&I Lions decision
British and Irish Lions forwards Maro Itoje and Jac Morgan with an inset of All Blacks legend Sir John Kirwan.
All Blacks legend Sir John Kirwan has called on World Rugby to address diving in the game after the abuse Carlo Tizzano endured following the second British and Irish Lions series Test match.
Wallabies boss Joe Schmidt opted to drop the flanker from his matchday squad after his involvement in the controversial ruck in the build-up to Hugo Keenan’s series-clinching try for the Lions in the second Test in Melbourne.
Jac Morgan thundered into the breakdown and cleared Tizzano out, with the latter flying back and throwing his arms in the air. The incident was reviewed, and it was deemed that the former’s actions were legal.
However, the Wallaby was accused of simulation by several former players and pundits in order to milk a penalty for his side, a notion that Schmidt rubbished by revealing the readings from his mouthguard.
Kirwan hits out at World Rugby
Still, Schmidt felt as though the scrutiny he came under was so severe that he needed a week out of the spotlight and he subsequently omitted Tizzano from the matchday squad for the final game.
“I thought that was interesting that Joe Schmidt left him out for those reasons; I would have done the opposite, I would have played him,” Kirwan said on the Rivals podcast.
“I don’t read it, and I’m always getting abuse, but I see it as a sign of respect. You don’t get abused if you are a nobody, and you don’t get abused if you are not saying something that people care about.
“What I see in a lot of the young players is that they want to make the team and then have a good following, but then it comes at a cost. You’ve got to have a thick skin and not take it personally. I don’t take it personally.
“This is the game that I love commenting on. I love everything about the game, and people are passionate about it.”
While World Rugby provided feedback to the Wallabies and Lions coaching staff over that TMO decision, it was not made public, with CEO Alan Gilpin also refusing to comment on the decision when fronting reporters in Australia.
This didn’t sit well for Kirwan, who believes that the game’s governing body needs to make the rulings on potential diving clearer in order to stamp it out.
“I keep coming back to our new leadership and chairman, but we need to start making some decisions publicly, and they need to show leadership,” he said.
“The referee leadership did not come out and defend the decision in the second Test, and our game needs to understand what we are going to do about diving. It’s a professional sport now, and players will try to milk a penalty. Our leadership needs to come out and say that any sort of diving is going to be dealt with like this.
“I would say every single South African who sees someone dive will absolutely hate it and hate the person who has dived.
“I’m not saying that Tizzano dived, but he made a gesture, trying to milk a penalty. But he takes the brunt of the opinion, and he is the brunt of something in our game that needs to have a decision made on it. What are we going do about people trying to milk a penalty? That’s the question, and we need an answer from our leadership, and then we move forward; otherwise, we are going to get it all the time.”
Matfield agrees
Joining Kirwan on the podcast was legendary Springboks lock Victor Matfield, who agreed with the ex-All Blacks winger and remembered an incident involving Bryan Habana in 2015.
“One incident with us involved the great Bryan Habana in 2015, where he took a dive and got a lot of stick in the media and social media, and he came out and said sorry, that’s not part of the game or the ethos of the game,” Matfield said.
“These days, especially with the head-to-head contacts, when you see how many players take the dive. A little knock and they go down, roll and stay on the ground and once they get the penalty, they get back up and run around. It’s happening every game where they are trying to milk penalties and it is a problem. I would love not to see it in our game.”
