Waratahs coach Michael Cheika is fuming after Adam Ashley-Cooper sustained a neck injury in Saturday's 25-17 loss to the Reds in Brisbane.
Cheika has criticised New Zealand referee Chris Pollock's decision not to refer a Mike Harris hit on Ashley-Cooper, in the 27th minute of the match.
Ashley-Cooper went to ground, trapping a team-mate who fell over him and who also hit the deck.
He (Ashley-Cooper) stayed on the field for the rest of the half but was replaced by Ben Volavola after the break.
"He's not alright, he took a shot, off the ball, no arms (and) no one does anything about it, the guy can't hardly move in there," Cheika said.
He added that he was disappointed that Pollock did not make use of the white card referral system to check on the incident.
"I don't know what (captain Dave Dennis) said on the field but from my end he gets hit with no arm, no ball, comes off the field and nothing happens ... we got a penalty (but) I had a player cited for bumping into a guy on the kick-off at the trials."
The Waratahs came back from a 14-point deficit to draw level at 17-all but a second try to Reds centre Ben Tapuai sealed the win for the hosts.
"We have to learn how to play under pressure, simple," Cheika added.
"We will learn how to play under pressure more often ... and the more we do it the better we'll get at it."
"We showed that we've got good potential, we showed that we're prepared to work hard ... we show that we're prepared to play a new style - sometimes to our own detriment - but we're committed to doing that because it's the way to teach ourselves to go forward."
Dennis said pressure on the Sydneysiders came from within and this led to mistakes.
"We were in control of that game once we got back to 17-17 and the momentum was all with us and for some reason we felt we were under pressure, where the reality was we had them under the pump," he explained.
"It's just a mindset we've got to change."
Comments
Wallaroo says...
No, no, no not the georgesmith bandwagon again.
I was looking forward to Cheika as coach, I'm not so sure now. Given the historical behaviour of Tahs coaches it appears that the problem is a lot bigger and higher up than the coach.
Posted 00:46 25th February 2013
Trader2 says...
Oh no not another whinging Tah's coach, I thought this year it could be different for them but I am worried already. Same old same old, year in year out for these blokes, there is always something, someone, to blame apart from themselves.
Posted 22:50 24th February 2013
Isograford says...
I thought the Warratahs and Folau were the second coming for rugby this year. Apparently not.
Posted 21:52 24th February 2013
isthatrightref says...
Looked to me like Hooper did more damage to two-dads than Harris... one of us needs to go to Specsavers :-)
Posted 07:09 24th February 2013
Ramage says...
So the whining has started. Did his team lose by any chance? Great start once again for the Tahs.
Posted 23:04 23rd February 2013
georgesmith says...
If anything, M. Cheika should be upset at himself. First for appointing a poor performer like D.Dennis as captain and then playing S. Kepu in the starting line-up when clearly the lazy Tongan is not even fit enough for club rugby. Surely, there are so many others M. Cheika could have appointed captain. D. Dennis can't even excel as a blindside flanker, how can we expect him to be a quality leader. He was lost in the first half.
Posted 22:04 23rd February 2013