Australia vice-captain and openside flanker Michael Hooper has been banned for one week for his illegal clear out at a ruck against England last weekend.
Hooper will miss Australia’s crucial game with Wales this weekend, which will decide the winner of Pool A.
He was cited for a 39th minute clean out on England fullback Mike Brown, under Law 10.4, which relates to charging into a ruck or maul without using arms.
The flanker was penalised at the time but not yellow carded for the incident, which you can see below.
The judicial officer deemed the offence was on the lower-end, with a maximum two-week suspension but Hooper’s early admission and good behavioural record reduced that penalty to just the one week.
Hooper will be available for the Wallabies quarter-final, against any one of South Africa, Scotland or Japan depending on the results of this weekend’s games.
What do you make of the ban? Is it a fair reflection on the severity of the incident?
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Well that’s a help. ….However may well convince Cementhead to leave Tips on the bench again!
I think it was however I think if had been a Backies Botha of a year or so ago it would have more!
So panel are suggesting that it should really have been a red card? In which case….on such small things is history changed
The citing panel are only ever involved if the incident could have been a red card:
“[A] citing commissioner is an independent official, appointed by the competition organizer, the union in which the match is taking place, or the World Rugby, who is responsible for citing players who commit any act of foul play which in the opinion of the Citing Commissioner warranted the player concerned being Ordered Off (Red card).”
So yes, it should have been a red card.
” if the incident *could* have been a red card”
The key word here is “could” Steve, which you have then turned into “should”.
They review, consider, then take action – sometimes nothing, sometimes things that would be in line with a yellow card during the match. Tom Wood was cited for kicking Liam Williams in the head and got a warning (slap on the wrist) – so it doesn’t mean he would have had a red card in the match (and the incident was seen and reviewed by the video ref). Farrel has not been cited for his shoulder charge because it was dealt with as a yellow during the match. So no, a citing does not mean would have been a red card, it means the citing officers considers it as a potential for one.
Don’t see any recommendation of it being a red card. Panel have deemed it was as worthy of a yellow as Farrel’s no arm tackle which did earn a yellow. Banned now for one week because no yellow – if a yellow had been given then no ban.
We all know what really happened here – one was in the 1st half, one was towards the end. As always refs are reluctant to brandish the yellows in 1st halves and/or for initial offences – it seems to take an accumulation of time or offences to finally get things done. So the ref got this one wrong.
If you think this would have changed the result …. don’t do it to yourself. Wales, WC 11, semi-final, red card for an offence that is now routinely chalked off as, at worst, a yellow card. All I can say is that nothing good comes of thinking you would have won otherwise.
ESPN reported this:
“Hooper fronted the hearing on Tuesday morning after citing commissioner Steve Hind found the hit, which was given just a penalty by French referee Romain Poite at the time, to have met the red-card threshold for foul play.”
Ok thanks. So is no arms in a ruck clear out a different rule to no arms in a tackle?
Shame for him – ref fails to do his job on the night, so Hooper pays the price. Brighty’s right it would’ve made no difference to the result. In fact, maybe Hooper was finding the breakdown boringly easy and fancied a 10-minute sit down.
Still, it’s good that he hasn’t got away scotfree with it, even if the punishment is harsh. There was no need for it.
England were totally and utterly out played by the aussies. They could have played with 14 all game and still come out with the same result
Bloody great. So Farrell gets a yellow card and Hooper got nothing. What would have happened if he was off for 10 mins?
Or err Dan Lydiate the week before…
And Tom Wood …. sigh, you really think England were robbed by poor reffing Jez?
No I don’t think so at all. England didn’t, on balence deserve to win either game. Mainly due to our back row. I think it’s more a comment on a level of bad luck and slight inconsistency in reffing that contributed a small part.
Err nothing !. If you think it would have changed the result you are delusional …
At the time my first thought was, given the decisions to date in the world cup, that this was a straight yellow borderline red – i suspect if the ref had not given the pen straight away the TMO would have reviewed it and recommended a yellow or red card as has been the case for all – neck level, tip tackle, no arm tackle offences i have seen the TMO review. Not sure why the ref did not yellow or as for TMO but water under the bridge now and this is great news for Wales on Saturday. Impossible to answer the question of what impact it would have had on the game but bottom line is we were outplayed at the breakdown, out thought technically at the scrummage and the better team on the day won.