Wallabies player responds after teammate accused of devious act in loss to Lions

Yahoo

6 days ago

Wallabies lock Nick Frost says his men aren't listening to the 'outside noise' after teammate Carlo Tizzano was accused of 'diving' to try and win a late penalty in the crushing second Test defeat to the British and Irish Lions. Tizzano was at the centre of the game's biggest controversy, with suggestions he was taken out illegally before Hugo Keenan's match-winning try for the Lions, with 45 seconds left.
Tizzano was left clutching at his neck after Lions star Jac Morgan appeared to hit him high during the clearout that led to the series-clinching try. The Aussies appealed for a penalty but the incident was ultimately cleared by the television match official and the referee, despite Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt claiming the decision went against rugby's strict 'push for player safety'.
Former Wallabies star Morgan Turinui was the most vocal critic after pointing out on Nine's broadcast that the Lions player made dangerous contact with the Aussie's neck and insisted it should have been a penalty to Australia. But former Lions and England flanker James Haskell said it was a perfectly executed clearout from Morgan and claimed the Wallabies player should have been 'red-carded' for play-acting.
'Honestly, I never get that passionate about stuff, but I could not believe from every fibre of my being that it was even a thing," he said on The Good, The Bad and The Rugby podcast about Australia's penalty claims. 'Only bit of foul play and nonsense in that incident was the Australian player diving. That should have been red-carded because that is utter crap.
'There is no physical way to clearout a player that is that low over the ball. The only way you used to be able to do it was put your head underneath him, but you go head on head. When you're that low over the ball, you've got a small window and you either get your arms underneath him, or you get your head underneath him. You have to hit where he hit... It is the only way to clearout, there is no other way to do it."
Wallabies star defends teammate but admits Aussies faltered
But Frost says the Wallabies are paying no attention to the backlash from former Lions players that has been shared across the UK's media. The Wallabies flanker defended his teammate over the staging accusations, but said regardless of whether it was a penalty or not, the incident masked a bigger picture around the manner of Australia's defeat.
The Wallabies were in a position to send the three-Test series into a decider in Sydney on Saturday night after jumping out to an 18-point lead. But they were unable to close out the second Test as the Lions stormed home at the MCG.
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"There were so many moments up until that where we could have capitalised," Frost told reporters. "We had a pretty decent lead in that first half, and we gave away a few tries. It doesn't always come down to the refs ... At the end of the day, you can't really rely right at the end for a decision there. If you're relying on that, you probably haven't done enough work throughout the game."
The Wallabies now turn their attentions to Saturday's third Test in Sydney, where they will be hoping to avoid the unwanted history of a first three-Test series whitewash at home to the Lions, since 1904. "There is something to lose. It's a Test match," Frost said. "There's a bit of fire in the belly from the last couple of games ... And again, like it's a Lions series, it's our last time... to play against them."
with AAP