Owen Farrell tackle worth 'three penalties', says Australia coach Michael Cheika

1/48
Will Macpherson24 November 2018

Australia coach Michael Cheika was left frustrated by referee Jaco Peyper’s interpretation of an Owen Farrell tackle at a vital moment late in the first half as his Australia side lost 37-18 to England at Twickenham.

Australia staged a spirited fightback in the first half to trail 13-10 in the final play of the first half when Farrell was penalised for a no arms tackle on Izack Rodda, reminiscent of his one on Andre Esterhuizen in the final play of England’s win over South Africa earlier this month.

That one went completely unpenalised; this time, Cheika felt Peyper should have given a penalty try or yellow card – even if he felt England were the best team on the day.

“I think so,” said Cheika when asked if he felt it was worthy of further punishment. “I want to make it clear obviously that England were the better team, deserved to win. They had us under pressure for many moments of the game. I thought we resisted really well. So, I don't want it to be seen like a carry-on.

“But the justification that Rodda tried to take him on with his shoulder is ludicrous. That's what the referee said. That's what you do when you carry the ball. So, I went to the referee's meeting they had here in the first week before the Wales game. And they referred back to the Owen Farrell tackle against South Africa. And the referees left Angus Gardner [the referee in England’s autumn opener] out to dry by saying that that should have been a penalty in front of all the coaches. And if that's a penalty, this is three penalties.”

England head coach Eddie Jones would not be drawn on the issue but was delighted with the performance of Joe Cokanasiga, who scored his second try in as many Tests and was a hugely influential ball carrier.

“He’s just starting,” he said. “He’s still got his training pants on. Wait until he gets proper pants. Then he’ll be able to play a bit. He’ll definitely get them. He’s going shopping now.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in