Pundit Arena Because Sport Is Everything
In the wake of New Zealand’s Bledisloe Cup capturing 29-9 victory over Australia, much of the post match attention was focused on an incident which occurred in the first ten minutes of the encounter.
In a maul on the Wallaby ten metre line, All Blacks prop Owen Franks made a clear and blatant attempt for the face of lock Kane Douglas.
Despite referee Romain Poite and the linesman standing in direct view of the incident, with Franks even taking it upon himself to steal a quick glance at the referee to see if his actions had been noticed, the alleged attempted eye-gouging was missed on the field of play.
Despite the above clip doing the rounds across the social media spectrum, much to the disgust and outrage of rugby fans, Sanzaar failed to recognise the incident as deserving of a red card.
It now seems that the All Blacks front-rower will avoid any potential suspension unless World Rugby should undertake a formal inquest into the matter.
Nevertheless, the apparent discrepancy in justice has left the majority of the rugby world in outrage.
One such established name in the sport who voiced his discontent towards Sanzaar’s decision via Twitter was ex-Ireland captain Brian O’Driscoll:
This is an absolute sham @WorldRugby ???! Makes a mockery of citing. If nothing comes of this it’s a farce. https://t.co/sDr92ggzcU
— Brian O’Driscoll (@BrianODriscoll) August 28, 2016
His tweet subsequently incited much reaction from the All Blacks faitful with one person stating; “Was BOD the former holder of the worlds most over rated player who thankfully retired? Can’t recall.”
O’Driscoll then engaged with his followers:
@Rozaus @estankard @ajhowse your opinion of me aside dirty play is dirty. No different in an All Black jersey.
— Brian O’Driscoll (@BrianODriscoll) August 28, 2016
@Rozaus @estankard @ajhowse that’s one angle is plenty for a case to answer. Different rules for some!
— Brian O’Driscoll (@BrianODriscoll) August 28, 2016
@Rozaus@estankard@ajhowse in fairness you guys are never guilty of foul play!
— Brian O’Driscoll (@BrianODriscoll) August 28, 2016
Once the argument reached boiling point it seemed that O’Driscoll let go of discourse as he took an apparent dig at New Zealand fans in a tweet which was not met well and was eventually deleted.
However one All Blacks fan managed to capture the tweet before it was subsequently removed:
Let’s all have another look at what Brian O’Driscoll really thinks of New Zealand, and the tweet that he deleted pic.twitter.com/IyVEcm4cIS
— Paul (@rugga13) August 30, 2016
However the former Leinster and Ireland great was adamant in making it clear in a following tweet that his comments were aimed at a specific few and not New Zealand fans as a whole:
@RickyJoseph23 how’s that the whole country?! I specifically said those fans that feel scrutinized.
— Brian O’Driscoll (@BrianODriscoll) August 30, 2016
While O’Driscoll has himself fallen victim to Kiwi foul play with the Tana Umaga spear tackle incident coming to mind, if no further inquest is taken into the matter then this will likely serve as fuel to the general consensus of fans that New Zealand have been the beneficiary of favouritism from governing bodies.
