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Highlanders first five red carded after Michael Hooper dumped vertically in lifting clean out
By Sam Smith
Highlanders first five Sam Gilbert has been red carded for a dangerous lifting tackle on Wallaby captain Michael Hooper.
The 23-year-old makeshift 10 took Hooper way past the horizontal before dropping the Waratah vertically onto his head just under a half hour into the game with scores locked 7-all.
The lifting tackle was completed at the ruck as Gilbert attempted to clean out Hooper from the breakdown.
The tip tackle was immediately condemned online, with Kiwi rugby media labelling the tackle 'horrendous' and 'a moment of madness' by the young Highlander.
The incident will be reviewed at the judiciary and Gilbert is sure to miss the rest of the season with a suspension that will likely see him miss the last round and the playoffs.
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Latest Comments
GB is England, Scotland, Wales. They are the 3 constituent countries in Great Britain. Ergo playing only those three countries is a tour of GB. The difference between GB and the UK is Northern Ireland. It's not a huge deal to be accurate and call places by their correct name. But please refrain from your idiotic attempts to BS that GB=UK. It doesn't.
Go to commentsThe 2023 draw was only criticized when it became apparent that the top 5 sides in the world were on the same side of the draw. Nowhere did they discuss the decision to backtrack to 2019 rankings which ensured that England and Wales (ranked #12 in 2023) were ranked top4.
The parties who trashed out the schedule were England Rugby, NZ Rugby and ITV. It is bordering on corrupt that a Rugby nation has the power to schedule its opponents to play a major match the week before facing them in a QF.
You won't find commentary by members of the relevant committees because a committee did not make the scheduling decision. I have never heard members of World Rugby speak out on the draw or scheduling issues.
For example in 2015 Japan were hammered by Scotland 4 days after beating SA. The criticism only happens after a cock up.
A fair pool schedule is pretty straightforward: The lowest two tanked teams must play on last pool day but not against each other. That means that TV can focus on promoting big matches with a Tier2 involved for that Friday.
Why does NZ Always get its preferred slot playing the hardest pool match on day 1?
Why do other teams eg France, Ireland, Scotland get so often scheduled to play a hard match the week before the QFs?
If you believe the rules around scheduling are transparent then please point me in the right direction?
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