New Zealand lock Sam Whitelock was incredibly lucky to avoid the sin-bin during Ireland’s 16-9 win over the All Blacks on Saturday.
The Crusaders second-row gave away three penalties during the game, the most of any New Zealand player, and was lucky to get away with a number of other infringements that went unpunished, particularly a first-half cheap shot on Ireland prop Cian Healy.
https://twitter.com/theblitzdefence/status/1063874016027557888
Whitelock was a menace and below you can see him lie all over Devin Toner and the ball while Ireland already had a penalty advantage.
It’s amazingly cynical and a minor miracle that referee Wayne Barnes did not send him to the bin with New Zealand having already conceded eight penalties and a penalty advantage at that stage in the game.
Former Ireland captain Brian O’Driscoll has called on World Rugby to clamp down on this sort of tactic and that it’s preventing a lot more tries from being scored.
If I could get @worldrugby to change one thing in the game it would be to get referees to sin bin the defensive player who infringes (often cynically) when it’s already penalty advantage. Happens all the time. Stops more tries being scored. Eg – Whitelock on 37 mins on Sat…
— Brian O'Driscoll (@BrianODriscoll) November 19, 2018
Whitelock said that the All Blacks did not play the way they wanted to but that Ireland prevented them from implementing their intended style.
“That’s the beauty of playing Test match rugby,” said Whitelock. “It doesn’t matter if it’s the first one of the year or the last one, you’re always excited to get out there and show the world what you’ve got and tonight was no different.
“The boys were definitely up [for it], we had a great week of preparation and it’s just a pity we didn’t play the way we wanted to. But they didn’t allow us to do that.”
