The early tackle which led to the sinbinning of centre Mark Robinson sent a wave of emotions through the All Blacks rugby team late in Saturday night’s test.
Robinson was yellow-carded for his 73rd-minute tackle on Daniel Herbert before the Wallabies second five-eighth could catch an inside pass from Matt Burke.
A try appeared to be looming from the play which started when a clearing kick from second five-eighth Aaron Mauger was charged down.
The Australians appealed at the time for a penalty try but South African referee Jonathan Kaplan said the tackle was only worth a penalty.
Wallabies coach Eddie Jones grudgingly accepted Kaplan’s explanation that a try would ”possibly” have been scored but not ”probably”, as is needed to award a penalty try.
”Sometimes you get the rub of the green, sometimes you don’t. We’re quite happy to abide by his decision,” Jones said.
Some of Robinson’s team-mates feared the worst when Kaplan’s whistle blew and he produced the yellow card for a professional foul.
A penalty try and subsequent conversion would have given the Wallabies a 13-12 lead and the real prospect of another victory at the death.
”I didn’t think he (Herbert) was going to score but you think to yourself, ‘shit, here we go’,” No 8 Scott Robertson said.
First five-eighth Andrew Mehrtens said Robinson appeared to dive before the ball had reached Herbert ”which may have made it look worse than it was”, but he believed the tackler and ball arrived at the same time.
Halfback Justin Marshall said it would have been disappointing if the match was decided by a ”controversial” decision. He felt the penalty and reducing the All Blacks’ defensive line by one was sufficient punishment.
Second five-eighth Mauger thanked the All Blacks forwards for moving more quickly to cover gaps out wide.
”They were already knackered before he had gone off so it showed how much we really wanted it,” Mauger said.
”We were probably quite lucky that it wasn’t worse.”
Robinson, who had never been sinbinned in his career, said the tackle wasn’t deliberately early.
”I tried to anticipate when Herbert was going to get the ball and I probably mistimed it a little bit in hindsight,” he said.
”It was a reactionary thing and I felt we were pretty desperate at the time. We were going backwards and we were on our own line. I felt it was a tackle that had to be made, I wasn’t thinking professional foul at that stage.”
Robinson ”felt obliged” to plead his case with Kaplan but was resigned to his long walk to the sideline.
”It was a very nerve-wracking time. I was certainly very relieved at the end … I was rapt that they could defend the way they did. It was a really massive effort,” he said. – Sapa-NZPA