Tahs players cited - could miss Lions game

..NSW Waratahs forwards Tolu Latu and Will Skelton and one of their potential Super Rugby opponents next week, have all been hit with alleged foul play citings after being involved in lifting tackles.

Hooker Latu and lock Skelton were both cited for their involvement in a tackle on Crusaders lock Sam Whitelock in the 17th minute of Saturday's match at ANZ Stadium.

Latu was given a yellow card at the time and Skelton went unpunished, but upon review the citing commissioner deemed that the alleged action of both men met the red card threshold for foul play.

Any suspension would rule them out of at least the first game of the Waratahs South African trip against the Lions in Johannesburg next weekend.

A few hours after the game in Sydney later, Lions hooker Robbie Coetzee was hit with the same alleged foul play citing as Latu and Skelton following an incident in the match against the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein.

Like the two Waratahs, Coetzee was cited for contravening law 10.4 (I) which refers to lifting a player from the ground and dropping or driving that player into the ground whilst that player's feet are still off the ground such that the players head and/or upper body come into contact with the ground is dangerous play.

Coetzee was given a yellow card at the time.

If Latu was banned it would mean the Tahs might have to resort to starting with their third-string hooker, Hugh Roach and pluck someone out of club rugby as his backup.

Last week Waratahs coach Michael Cheika said their leading hooker Tatafu Polota-Nau would not be taken to South Africa to give him another couple of weeks to recover from his second bout of concussion this season.

News of Latu and Skelton's citings could have been an unpleasant surprise for Cheika, who after the game felt neither man was likely to get into trouble.

"The match officials were all there and they took a long look." Cheika said.

"He (Whitelock) didn't land on his head.

"It was an awkward combination of the two, they were trying to hold him up for the maul, one was up top.

"Sometimes it just happens, so I wouldn't expect that anything was going to happen.

If Skelton is suspended, Cheika will have another quality lock to call upon, with former Wallaby Dean Mumm linking up with the Waratahs in South Africa.

Mumm is heading there from Europe after completing his English club commitments.

Skelton and Latu will each appear before a SANZAR judicial hearing conducted through a video conference on Monday at 3.30pm

AEST.

The Crusaders coach Todd Blackadder noted something else that Cheika, understandably perhaps, glossed over when he told reporters after the match that the citing commissioner might be “interested” in a number of other incidents involving Skelton, “including a charge that took out No. 7 Richie McCaw, and an apparent shoulder charge into a ruck”.

The shoulder charge incident, coming in from the side and hitting a ruck like an unguided missile (with shoulders and no binding) is the same sort of incident that got the Hurricanes prop Reggie Goodes a week’s suspension recently under Rule 10.4 (h).

The charge on McCaw was just as blatant. McCaw was standing “holding his ground”, according to the referee, with his back to the Waratahs watching a teammate field a high ball. Skelton charged through like a runaway rhino and actually changed direction to hit the unsuspecting McCaw violently, allowing the kicker to get his kick away.

Referee Westhuizen, in only his eighth Super Rugby match, was inclined to penalise Skelton until TMO Marshall talked him out of this decision. Marshall’s argument was that Skelton was chasing through on the ball.

I am sorry but this is nonsense. Replays showed quite clearly that Skelton aimed up on McCaw and not the kicker to force a charge down. This incident is a clear violations of Rule 10.4 ((a): “A player must not strike an opponent with the fist or arm, including the elbow, shoulder, head or knees.”