Wallabies issue response to allegation that Carlo Tizzano ‘dived’ against Lions
The Wallabies during last Saturday's match with the Lions
A Wallabies player has reacted to the UK media accusation of diving by one of his teammates during last Saturday’s series-clinching win for the British and Irish Lions in Melbourne.
Carlo Tizzano was called out by numerous publications and also by Lions legend Sam Warburton following the last-minute incident at the MCG, where he fell out of a ruck after getting cleared out at the breakdown by Jac Morgan.
Referee Andrea Piardi decided there was no foul play involved in the ruck incident, and this decision meant that the try scored a few moments later in the attack by Hugo Keenan was allowed to stand. That gave the Lions a 29-26 comeback victory, and it also sealed them the Test series 2-0 with one match remaining.
Much of the fallout following the thoroughly entertaining content had focused on Morgan’s collision with Tizzano. The Wallabies back-rower was generally accused in the UK media of diving with his reaction, while 2013 and 2017 Lions skipper Warburton added in his Times column on Monday: “Tizzano made a real meal of it, something I really don’t like.”
“Disappointing…”
The commentary that Tizzano dived was put to Wallabies lock Nick Frost when he fronted the media in Sydney, and he reckoned the accusation was another thing to add to the mix ahead of this Saturday’s tour finale, where the tourists are looking to clinch a 3-0 result in a series for the first time since 1904.
“All those things we have spoken about, it’s another thing to add into the pot to get up for the game, I guess. Maybe it is disappointing that they say that. We are hoping to go out and put our best foot forward as a team and as a nation,” said Frost.
Asked about Tizzano contesting for the ball at the last-minute breakdown, Frost added: “Carlo is there. He is a competitor, like he always is. He is trying to get on the ball as a seven. He puts his hands out. He is there first, and he gets hit pretty hard with a full-force clean-out. It is what it is. We can’t do anything about a decision.”
While the continuation of the move resulted in the Lions scoring the win-stealing try, Frost wasn’t inclined to blame the Wallabies’ loss on that one incident.
“There are so many moments up until that where we could have capitalised on a bit more on… those touch points that we have got to go back and review on with how can we be better in different facets of the game?
“We had a pretty decent lead in that first half, and we gave away a few tries for half-time. There are key moments that it doesn’t always come down to the rest of us or right at the end. So there’s a whole span of things that are in our favour that we can control.
“End of the day, you can’t really rely right at the end for a decision that. If you’re relying on that, you have probably haven’t done enough work throughout the game.”
It was Wallabies boss Joe Schmidt who turned up the heat on the decision not to penalise Morgan for clattering into Tizzano, and Frost revealed what their head coach said to them on the immediate aftermath of their Melbourne loss.
“On the field, the first thing he said to us was that he was proud of us. Those were the first words,” he revealed.
“That’s the thing that stuck with me – just how proud he was of us. Just that belief. Then the next job was about next week. That’s all that was really spoken about.”
