Monday’s rugby news has the Tahs scrum under pressure, the Brumbies breakdown scrutinized, Skelton warned and Eddie Jones silencing himself.
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Tahs scrum targeted
The Waratahs scrum will be under pressure this week with Benn Robinson in “serious doubt” for the team’s upcoming clash against the Brumbies. “He’ll have to go through all the concussion protocols and then if he’s cleared from there we’ll look at his physical wellbeing,” coach Daryl Gibson said, with further concerns about a possible broken nose.
The Brumbies destroyed the Hurricanes’ scrum on Friday, and will be looking to rekindle the form that saw the team work a scrum penalty in the last minute against the Blues last year, against current Tahs tighthead Angus Ta’avao.
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Brumbies ask for breakdown help
While the Brumbies were comfortably superior to the Hurricanes 52-10, they also were repeatedly put on notice by referee Andrew Lees for breakdown infringements, although Matt Toomua and David Pocock were only sin-binned in the second half when the result was beyond doubt.
David Pocock said he would work on his timing at the breakdown, while coach Stephen Larkham questioned whether new interpretations were going to be standard. “A couple were 50-50, we were disappointed,” Larkham said. “Poey is the best in the game at making decisions at the breakdown but it was obviously interpreted slightly different.”
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Skelton warned
Will Skelton has received a warning for foul play in his team’s 30-10 win against the Reds on Saturday. Skelton was viewed to have contravened Law 10.4 (k) for dangerous play for a cleanout against Saia Fainga’a in the 25th minute of the match.
A Citing Commissioner Warning may be issued by the SANZAAR Citing Commissioner for foul play incidents that are very close to, but in his opinion, do not meet the red card threshold for citings. The Citing Commissioner deemed after the match that a suspension was not warranted
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Jones imposes media ban
England remained unbeaten in the Six Nations after a 21-10 win over Ireland at Twickenham on Saturday. “From this press conference onwards I’m putting a media ban on myself,” England coach Eddie Jones said afterwards.
Jones caused a furore during the week when he suggested the parents of Johnny Sexton should be concerned about him playing for Ireland with whiplash. “I don’t want to do any scaremongering, because I don’t want to do anything that offends the media or people’s parents,” he said.
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