Riche Mo'unga hits out at 'double standard' of disciplinary process

UNHAPPY: Richie Mo'unga of New Zealand. File pic: Dan Mullan/Getty Images

New Zealand playmaker Richie Mo’unga has hit out at the inconsistency of verdicts in recent disciplinary hearings, calling this week’s downgrading of Owen Farrell’s red card to a yellow “a slap in the face”.

England captain Farrell is facing a fresh disciplinary hearing early next week after governing body World Rugby appealed a judicial verdict delivered by an independent panel convened by Six Nations Rugby in the wake of the fly-half’s red card for high contact on Wales’s Taine Basham in last Saturday’s World Cup warm-up Test at Twickenham.

Farrell was initially yellow-carded by the on-field referee for his shoulder to head contact with that decision upgraded by the so-called Bunker Review TMO during the 10 minutes following the incident. That decision was overturned on Tuesday when many observers were expecting a suspension for Farrell and Mo’unga drew comparisons with that and the five-week ban handed to former All Black and now Tonga player George Moala for a tip-tackle red card against Canada.

In an interview with Radio New Zealand, Mo’unga said: “The Farrell incident. Someone who has history and who has been banned earlier this year, for them to turn around and say he’s got a zero-week ban, it’s a slap in the face.

“There are boys in this (All Blacks) camp who feel for (Moala) deeply and a lot of Pacific Island boys in the camp who are pretty gutted about that scenario and the way it’s unfolded. It seems there’s a double standard going on, especially with the Tier Two teams and the Pacific Island nations around how they get judged or how they get treated.” 

Mo’unga added: “You look at someone like Farrell – and I’m not having a go at him personally, he’s a good man, and I adore his skillset and the way he plays footy – but the different way that he and Moala have been judged is shocking.”