A controversial red card handed to All Blacks star Jordie Barrett against the Wallabies has split opinions in the opening half of the two teams’ Bledisloe Cup clash.
Barrett, who scored the first try of the match, was given his marching orders after inadvertently collecting Marika Koroibete in the head in the 28th minute.
The incident occurred when Barrett was under a high ball and raised his knee to protect his landing space. However, a second action saw his leg extend out with the studs from his boot going straight into Koroibete’s face.
A clearly contrite Barrett immediately checked on Koroibete after the play as the Wallabies star was attended to by trainers, before being left stunned as he was sent off.
The sending off also stunned All Blacks great Andrew Mehrtens, who was on the cusp of saying New Zealand’s No.15 would receive a yellow when he was sent off.
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“As he went up, he ended up having to tilt his body in the air, so it’s probably natural for his leg to come out,” he said on Nine’s coverage.
“I think in the old system he would’ve got a yellow. I think the fact that they know it’s not going to reduce them to 14 men for the rest of the game can weigh on that and then they can have a better look at it.
“I don’t think it’s deliberate, however [it is] reckless and the result comes into it at that point.”
Former Wallabies star Drew Mitchell said that while the call to sent Barrett off was harsh, it was a correct one according to the current rules.
“Going through it, direct contact with the foot to the head, by the letter of the law that constitutes a red card, accidental or not,” he said.
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“You reverse this and you say it’s a shoulder and it would be the same outcome. Look, it’s a tough one, but by the letter of the law the referee has got that one right.”
“For mine, it’s 100 per cent accidental,” ex-Wallaby Morgan Turinui added.
“It’s still dangerous contact to the head. He’s up there, drives the knee up and it is a kick out in front.
“What was really important was immediately after this was the play went on and Jordie Barrett went straight to Marika Koroibete on the ground to check if he was okay. Does this constitute as dangerous play with that contact to the head?”
The incident was the one dampener in a dominant first half for the All Blacks, who took an 18-0 lead into the break in Perth, grabbing the final five points of the half despite having just 14 players on the park due to Barrett’s send-off.
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