By Liam Napier in Toulouse
Call the King’s Counsel lawyer. The All Blacks appear set to contest Ethan de Groot’s potentially costly red card by suggesting his first point of contact came with the shoulder, not the head.
De Groot will front the judiciary in the coming days after receiving the All Blacks’ first World Cup red card in history for an unnecessary high shot on Namibia’s Adriaan Booysen as the All Blacks rebuilt some much-needed confidence by running in 11 tries in their 71-3 rout in Toulouse.
The incident in the 72nd minute blighted the first step forward for the All Blacks in France as they delivered a dominant set-piece platform that allowed halfback Cam Roigard to shine and the backline to largely run rampant by retaining the ball far more than in their kick-heavy tournament-opening loss to the hosts.
This result will quickly fade into the background, though, as the All Blacks seek to save loosehead prop de Groot from a suspension that threatens his involvement in the remainder of the World Cup.
“It’s always frustrating,” All Blacks coach Ian Foster said of de Groot’s red card. “There was a lot of shoulder on shoulder in that contact. We saw the player getting his shoulder dealt to. That certainly looked like the target area so we’ll wait and see.
“My experience tells me you’ve got to go away and let it breathe for a while, have a look at it and go through the process. That happened after Twickenham. Things were pretty clear after 24 hours.”
Foster was referencing Scott Barrett escaping a ban after his two yellow cards in the record defeat to the Springboks. He also pointed to French lock Romain Taofifenua copping a yellow card after he made shoulder-to-head contact with Uruguay halfback Santiago Arata in France’s second World Cup pool victory.
“It’s clearly an area people are searching for consistency at the moment so we’ll have a look at the video and see what happens but it’s frustrating,” Foster said.
“There’s a lot of emotion around when you get a red card. In the 24 hours from last night to tonight we’ve seen the very fine margins about what’s a red card and what’s not. There will be much debate about that.
“It takes time and energy but it’s the nature of the game.”
With tighthead Tyrel Lomax slowly working his way back from the 30 stitches he received to his thigh after the Twickenham loss, the All Blacks are now sweating on their other starting prop’s availability as they set their sights firmly on the defining third pool match against Italy.
Tournament rules dictate teams cannot replace suspended players and with only two other loosehead props - Ofa Tu’ungafasi and Tamaiti Williams, who is yet to make his World Cup debut – in their squad the All Blacks will be desperate to retain de Groot’s services.
On a brighter note, Roigard further staked his irrepressible claims with two tries and two assists in a man-of-the-match performance that left Foster lauding his influential contribution from the base.
“He played really well. He had a pack in front of him that was giving him the platform. He took his opportunities. It’s one thing to have good go-forward ball, it’s two to make good decisions with that. He cleared consistently well. He didn’t have to kick a lot but when he did it was effective. And we saw the benefit of his running game. The last couple of weeks I’ve been impressed with his growth at training. It was a big start for him, and he certainly took the opportunity.”
Leicester Fainga’anuku was another fringe prospect to impress with his powerful presence on the left edge punching holes.
It is, however, all very well for the All Blacks to showcase the breadth of their attacking skill against Namibia. It is another entirely to do it when they don’t have it all their own way up front. Those true tests to come will reveal whether the All Blacks have improved, or they merely flexed their superiority against significantly weaker opposition.
From an attacking perspective, this was the blueprint, though. Former Springboks coach Allister Coetzee, now leading Namibia, said he hadn’t seen the All Blacks perform in that vein, by retaining possession and using the width of the field, for some time after their excessive kicking against France.
Foster acknowledged that fluency launched from the All Blacks set piece dominance, with their scrum a telling weapon that created Roigard’s second try from a huge tighthead shunt.
“I loved the intention. When we got the opportunity to play we did. Sometimes you’ve got to deal with a bit of pressure. You lose your first game at the World Cup you’ve got to make sure this team doesn’t get too tight on its skill set and I thought they responded well to that as a first step.
“It was a game we had to win. We knew that. Sometimes those games can get loose on you and people can start searching. I liked the discipline. We showed them a lot of respect. We wanted to deny them the ball and we did that through set-piece pressure. That gave us the opportunity to play. We’ve got some players who are good when they get on the front foot in a lot of space.”
After successive defeats to the Springboks and France stand-in captain Ardie Savea noted the importance of restoring confidence as the All Blacks turn attention to their Italy match in two weeks that will determine their quarterfinal fate.
“It’s quite a relief but also not surprising we’ve always trusted and believed in our game and what we’re doing. Tonight reiterated that for us as a team,” Savea said. “We can build from tonight and put a smile on Foz’s face because he was walking round a bit grumpy.”
Liam Napier has been a sports journalist since 2010, and his work has taken him to World Cups in rugby, netball and cricket, boxing world title fights and Commonwealth Games.
She aims to start a family after the Rugby World Cup in England.