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The Waratahs' Sam Norton-Knight said he had forgiven team-mate Lote Tuqiri for the harsh shove in the back he received after bungling a tap penalty when a kick might have beaten the Western Force on Friday night.
A furious Tuqiri dealt out a little summary justice when Norton-Knight's
surprise tactic failed, as most of the Waratahs were settling for a goal attempt to break the last-second, 16-16 deadlock.
"I've absolutely accepted his apology," Norton-Knight said yesterday. "I wasn't really even aware of the push... I was aware of it, but you could see by the look on my face that I was running through the [quick-tap play] myself when he did it and wasn't really focusing on Lote. Hopefully we can move on and worry about the more important business of winning games."
Norton-Knight said he would back himself again in the same situation. "It's good to have the benefit of hindsight but that's the way I play," he said.
"I'm an instinctive player and I saw an opportunity and it didn't work out."
Tuqiri said although he didn't agree with Norton-Knight's decision, he should have expressed himself more discreetly, and in-house.
"It probably wasn't the right time to do it," he said of Norton-Knight's choice.
"But it wasn't the right time to do what I did either with my reaction after the hooter.
"You should keep those things behind closed doors and let the coach deal with it. I went about it the wrong way."
Tuqiri appears to have escaped disciplinary action after the astonishing end to the game.
The Waratahs were granted a penalty near the sideline in a difficult, but kickable, spot.
Waratahs fullback Peter Hewat has a good record with such kicks but he, his team-mates and fans, were amazed to see Norton-Knight, a replacement, tap the ball to himself and set off on a run - even though he was approxim-ately 40m out and in a narrow corridor near touch.
He turned the ball over and the Force's Cameron Shepherd kicked the ball out to end the match. Tuqiri, incensed by Norton-Knight's decision, gave him a verbal burst and, as the two were heading off the field after shaking hands with their opponents, gave him a hefty shove in the back.
Waratahs coach Ewen McKenzie told the Australian newspaper that the incident was "a dead issue".
"It's not something we're about, and Lote acknowledged that in front of the team and said that he'd done wrong and he apologised straight away, so it's finished," said McKenzie.
Tuqiri's name has also been before the Australian public recently in the long-running saga of bid and counter-bid between rugby union and rugby league as they jockey for the signature of the big winger.
The will-he, won't-he situation has gone on for so long that some observers have begun to question whether Tuqiri's recent form warrants the five-year, A$2.4m (NZ$2.73m) contract he is considering in the union-league tug of war.
Tuqiri has also irritated many Australian fans who perceive him as seemingly unworried about whether he plays for the Wallabies again and hinting that he is a little bored by the game.
- AGENCIES
