'Human error' - Schmidt critical of late refereeing decision that cost Wallabies

Angry Australia boss Schmidt cited rugby’s law 9.20b when claiming Hugo Keenan’s winning try for the Lions should have been ruled out.

Australia head coach Joe Schmidt before the second test match between Australia and the British & Irish Lions at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Australia. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Joe Schmidt launched an attack on referee Andrea Piardi following Australia’s second Test loss to the British & Irish Lions as the tourists put the 2025 series beyond their hosts with a game to spare.

Hugo Keenan’s try with only 20 seconds left on the clock gave his side a famous 29-26 victory in front of 90,307 spectators at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, a record attendance for a Lions Test match.

Yet the Irish full-back’s score had to withstand a TMO review of a suspected dangerous clear out by Jac Morgan on opposing replacement back-rower Carlo Tizzano as the Australian was attempting a jackal over the ball. Morgan cleaned out Tizzano, whose head, neck and back were exposed to the Lions player, with the Wallaby then clutching his head and falling backwards to the ground. Video replays were inconclusive as to which part of Tizzano was struck and Piardi stuck to his original decision to award the try.

Angry Wallabies boss Schmidt cited rugby’s law 9.20b: “A player must not make contact with an opponent above the line of the shoulders. Sanction: Penalty.

“I think everyone can make their own decision on that. You just have to read law 9.20 and you just have to listen to the description from the referee and then watch the vision when two players are described as arriving at the same time. Just watch the footage.” 

Asked how a referee and officials could get such a decision wrong, as the Australia head coach suggested, Schmidt replied: “Because they are human. Players make errors. Match officials make errors.

“Our perspective is we felt it was a decision that doesn’t really live up to the big player safety push that they are talking about. You cannot hit someone above the levels of the shoulders and there’s no bind with the left arm, his hand is on the ground. That’s what we have seen. We have watched a number of replays from different angles so it is what it is. We just have to accept it.” 

Schmidt added it was “a tough one to take” but his opposite number, Lions head coach Andy Farrell understandably saw the incident differently.

“I thought it was a brilliant clear-out. It depends which side of the fence you come from. I can understand people’s opinions. I thought Jac was brilliant when he came on and so were the rest of the bench.

“I thought it was a good clear out (watching it) live. I couldn't understand what they were going back for. They seem to go back for absolutely everything these days, don't they? I'm so pleased that the referee held his nerve. The right decision in my opinion. “Honestly, sheer joy. What a box to be in. The coaches were through the roof, as you could imagine. Something that I'll stick in my mind for the rest of my life.” 

Lions fly-half Finn Russell saw the Morgan clearout at close hand and said the TMO review had not worried him.

“No, not at all. I think when you saw it back and their boy is over the ball and Jac has cleared him out. It’s a hard clear-out and that’s all it is. I think he obviously ops up holding his head as if it’s illegal, which it wasn’t.

“They were trying to get anything at that point. I think that was a brilliant clear-out, pretty much a textbook clear-out. When he’s gone in over the ball Jac has hit him hard, and that’s how it is.” 

Russell suggested Tizzano’s reaction had prompted the review by New Zealand TMO Richard Kelly.

“I was just outside the ruck and saw the great clear-out that it was. I think when Tizzano goes down holding his head it was obviously going to be questioned but I think when you saw it back it was just a textbook clear-out and a brilliant clear-out from Jac.

“Tizzano is over the ball, which is good play from him, but I think Jac just cleared him out really well. It’s almost the aggression that he cleared him out with that’s what the question mark was almost, which should be a question mark in rugby.

“He obviously holds his head and tried to get a penalty from it, but no, I think it was a brilliant clear-out.” 

Schmidt also questioned the legality of Dan Sheehan’s first-half try when the Lions hooker tapped a penalty and dove over two Australian defenders to score.

“I think one of the things is that World Rugby are trying to make sure that we are tackling lower and so we had two tacklers going in to tackle low and he dived and scored.

“I can see according to the law how can that just be diving and scoring. It is illegal to jump the tackle, but he dived over. What it now challenges World Rugby to do is that if we have two guys going in low and a guy dives over that he is pretty much head first so what do we do to stop him scoring apart from stopping his head?

“There’s not much else you can do. I feel for the players because they get backed into a corner around head contact and it is such a taboo subject and we’re trying to make the game safer.

“In contrast you have got Dan diving over to score and you have got in all the laws it is head or neck contact. You have got a contrast there that I guess we will look back at and ask some questions on.“