Sydney – Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt has revealed that Carlo Tizzano is a target of “online abuse” following the dramatic conclusions of the second Test against the Lions in England and Ireland.
Schmidt played a reporter in Sydney on Thursday afternoon and selected the team in his third final Test this weekend at Accor Stadium. The Wallabies made three injured changes, but Scrum Half Nick White was awarded a swan on the test after announcing his international retirement.
However, Thursday’s press conference finally returned to the controversial finish last Saturday. Lions replacement Jack Morgan escaped a dangerous clean-out at Tizzano, and saw Hugo Keenan’s match-winner stands, visitors claimed a 29-26 victory and an infringing 2-0 series lead.
Tizano started moving out of Morgan’s clean-out, but his actions in doing so led to accusations of his injury.
However, Schmidt defended his backrower on Thursday, revealing that the contact was not equivalent to a concussion, but Tizzano has gotten a bit worse.
“He obviously had a very tough week, Carlo, he copied a lot of online abuse,” Schmidt said. “The only thing I say about Carlo and Carlo’s defense was the force of neck passing, direct force, almost 2,200 rad (radians) spinning force. This is enough to cause serious injuries, not a well-conditioned rugby player like Carlo, and perhaps he’s best to take a deep breath.
“I think we all know Newton’s third law that there is an equal and opposing response to all actions. When that power hit him and the speed of his head fell apart, he recoiled behind the rack.
“I think it would be better for Carlo to sit this down. I wasn’t sure about him on Tuesday. He still hurt quite a bit. He was great today.
Schmidt said he was left to other players to report Tizzano’s headspace to management.
“No, it comes from other players. I advised Carlo to stay away from the media, full stops and opinions out there as we tried to deal with the facts.
“And to let him know the law and the facts of what happened, and what caused him to be equal and opposed reactions.
Schmidt did not discuss where the reviews with World Rugby were, but said the findings remained personal. However, he provided some thoughts about the Lions’ first attempt in the second Test, when hooker Dan Sheehan jumped over Wallaby defenders Dave Polecki and James slippers.
Despite the protests from Wallaby skipper Harry Wilson, the attempt was not reviewed, but later became the topic of extensive debate over whether law should be permitted regarding the way it is currently written.
Schmidt said that if the lions tried to repeat the play in Sydney this weekend, Australia had workshops on several solutions.
“We can’t clarify what these discussions are, so we’re just preparing as much as we can,” Schmidt said. “The most frustration about that is that there’s offside when they tap on it. If they just got the chance to go back and play the scrum and maybe we had the opportunity to clarify, it was great, is it a dangerous play or is it acceptable?
“And if that’s acceptable, try to come up with a plan to stick to it. There are two tacklers under Dan as he goes, so we really need to get another one behind.
“I think the worry is that there is a tendency for kids to try to emulate what they see on TV, what club players see on TV, and that’s one of the things they’re trying to clear up the legislative clarifications in March 2022, supporting the range of dangerous play, if any.
“Now I’m not saying I haven’t tried it because I don’t know how to assess danger, and I think that’s one of the things that world rugby is probably going to go back and see and evaluate.