The All Blacks insisted Sunday that errant lock Brad Thorn did not have a disciplinary problem after a second yellow card of the season put him on the brink of another possible Tri-Nations suspension.
The giant Thorn, who incensed South Africans when his dumping tackle on Springbok skipper John Smit put him out of the Tri-Nations tournament with a groin injury, was sent to the sin bin early on in New Zealand’s 34-19 loss to Australia here on Saturday.
It was 33-year-old Thorn’s second yellow card of the season after he was sin-binned playing in the Super 14 final with Canterbury Crusaders, and follows his one-match Tri-Nations ban after being cited for the Smit tackle in Wellington on July 5.
Thorn’s indiscretion left the All Blacks a man down in the sixth minute of Saturday’s match when he was sin-binned by South African referee Craig Joubert for a high reflex tackle on Wallaby flyhalf Matt Giteau.
Under Sanzar rules, three yellow cards in one season of Super 14 and Tri-Nations leads to a tribunal hearing and a possible further suspension.
Robbie Deans, who coached Thorn at the Crusaders before taking up the Wallabies’ job in June, said he expected All Blacks’ counterpart Graham Henry to speak with Thorn.
”In terms of his mentality he is not a dirty player, but these things happen,” Deans said after Saturday’s Sydney Test.
”Discipline has been a big part of our games, but he’s running pretty close to the wire now, I think it’s three yellow cards and you’re up (before the tribunal).
”I’m sure Graham will be having a word to him.”
But Henry passed on the question of Thorn’s discipline to forwards’ coach Steve Hansen at the team’s post-match press conference.
”Brad Thorn has been playing rugby for a while now and he’s been cited once in his career and he’s had two yellow cards in recent times, but I don’t take that to being having a discipline problem,” Hansen said.
”He plays a physical game and tonight a guy [Giteau] stepped back inside him and he reacted to that and got him across the shoulder.
”I don’t think we can say he’s got a discipline problem.” – AFP
