All Blacks coach Ian Foster has questioned whether Ethan de Groot’s hit on Namibian number eight Adriaan Booysen was worthy of a red card.
The New Zealand prop was given a yellow card and sent to the sin bin before having his sanction upgraded to red.
Speaking post-match, Foster suggested there had been shoulder-to-shoulder contact and seemed to downplay the seriousness of the collision.
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It comes amid a wave of incidents in which players have been hit in the head at this year’s Rugby World Cup that have been heavily penalised or unpunished entirely.
De Groot is facing a suspension for the incident as it will be reviewed.
He could cop a three-game ban, which would take him out of the running to play a quarter-final.
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However, Foster is hopeful some comparisons can be drawn between de Groot’s clash and that involving Scott Barrett, in which he escaped punishment.
Foster also noted Romain Taofifenua’s clash in France’s narrow win over Uruguay in which he received a yellow card for a similar incident – one which was not upgraded to red.
“It’s always frustrating,” said Foster.
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“My experience tells me you’ve got to go away and let it breathe for a while and have a good look at it and go through the process.
“That happened after Twickenham, and things were pretty clear after 24 hours.
“There was a lot of shoulder-on-shoulder in that contact, we saw the player had his shoulder getting dealt to.
“That certainly looked like the target area. We’ll wait and see.
“It’s an area people are searching for consistency in at the moment, so we’ll have to look at the video and see what happens – but frustrating.”
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Foster weighed in on the lack of consistency there had been in this year’s tournament, which has been a frustration of fans and pundits.
“We’ll just have to wait and see you have to go through a process. It’s not unusual. You’just got to take your time and gor through the process,” Foster continued.
“There’s a lot of emotion around when you get a red card. The 24 hours from last night to tonight we’re seeing very fine margins of consistency about what’s a red card and what’s not a red card, and I guess there will be much debate about that.
“Ours was. It looked to us like a lot of shoulder-on-shoulder as the main intention, so we’ll obviously go and have a look at it. It does take time and energy, but it’s the nature of the game.”
The All Blacks will have a week off before facing Italy on September 30 and then Uruguay on October 6.
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Hasibur Rahaman is a passionate sports journalist. He covers everything from cricket to field hockey, delivering up-to-the-minute updates and in-depth analysis of sporting events, both within India and on the international stage.
