World Rugby chiefs have fired back at Australia head coach Joe Schmidt as the fall-out from Saturday’s Lions Test in Melbourne continues.
Schmidt slated match officials, led by Italian referee Andrea Piardi, after the controversial end to the tourists’ 29-26 series-clinching win at the MCG saying they were ignoring player safety.
Schmidt’s beef was with a Jac Morgan clear out on Wallaby flanker Carlo Tizzano which helped set up the winning try for Hugo Keenan – claiming the Welshman had hit Tizzano in the neck.
The game’s rulers were dismayed that Schmidt played the welfare card but will not be sanctioning the Kiwi.
World Rugby CEO Alan Gilpin said: “It is disappointing when the reaction is one of, ‘this means player welfare isn’t taken seriously’, because we have worked really hard on that.
“Everyone knows we are putting player welfare at the top of the agenda. You can see that from what we are doing with the instrumented mouthguards, all the research and the science.”
South Africa boss Rassie Erasmus landed a two-month ban after releasing a video slamming referee Nic Berry during the 2021 Lions series.
Former flanker Phil Waugh, now boss of Rugby Australia, stoked the fires on Sunday by backing up Schmidt and lodging a complaint with World Rugby.
But Gilpin added: “There’s a lot of emotion. The Wallabies had a chance to win an amazing Test match, so we understand that. Joe’s comments have continued to respect the fact that the match officials have got a tough job to do. He might disagree with the decisions that were made, but I don’t think he’s called the integrity of our match officials into question.
“We’ve got match officials who, when they’re criticised publicly, are having their families targeted outside the school gates, and that’s not right, so we’ve got to support these guys.”