SBW receives apology from ref over yellow card
All Black Sonny Bill Williams has revealed that referee Angus Gardner has admitted he was wrong in sin-binning the midfielder in last weekend's test in Paris.
Gardner showed a yellow card and awarded a penalty try after Williams deliberately knocked an Anthony Belleau cross kick over the dead ball line. It was obvious at the time that Williams' rugby league instincts took over, as such a move is standard practice in the 13-man code. He later admitted to not knowing that the action was illegal, however consensus was mixed on the severity of the punishment.
"The penalty was obviously awarded, but he said he made that mistake by sending me off. It is what it is, that's footy." Williams told Newshub.
"I should've been looking up the rule books. I remember laying on the ground and I looked up at Jimbo [Damian MacKenzie] and I said 'Bro, am I allowed to do that?' He looked at me and he shook his head. It was an honest mistake, just like the ref sending me off was an honest mistake."
In the end it made little difference to the result, as the All Blacks ran out 38-18 victors over the inexperienced French side. All Black coach Steve Hansen is obviously unconcerned with the incident, retaining Williams in his starting side for this weekend's test against Scotland at Murrayfield.
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Honest, discipline, humility… Priceless.
Go to commentsSo many excuses. No mention of the SA number 2 being taken out illegally in the 2nd minute. That act of foul play had a massive impact on the SA game. Face it, NZ play pretty dirty very regularly, and it’s only since 2016 they’ve been held to higher officiating standards via stricter officiating and TMO reviews. They deserved to have a man down. Sorry. Fix the yellow and red cards and NZ will win more RWCs. Plus, there WAS a knock on invalidating the one try, so it was NOT a try. Period. Here’s a Kleenex…
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