The Wallabies could be sweating on the fate of winger Reece Hodge with Fiji set to refer a no-arms tackle that ended the night of flanker Peceli Yato's night but coach Michael Cheika says he was more concerned with the "severe focus" on David Pocock by the officials.
Hodge collided with Peceli Yato in the 26th minute of the match, with Australia trailing 11-7, and the flanker went off with a concussion.
Fiji captain Dominiko Waqaniburotu highlighted the incident to referee Ben O’Keeffe at the time, who referred it to the TMO, who deemed it all clear.
The Fijians are expected to refer the Hodge incident to the citing commissioner, something they must do within 36 hours, who will determine whether the Wallabies winger should be suspended.
High Tackle Sanction Framework
— Ross Tucker (@Scienceofsport) September 21, 2019
Shoulder or high? Shoulder, because the right arm is behind plane of body on contact
1. Head contact? Y
2. Danger? Automatically high for shoulder -> head
Entry point = red
3. Mitigation? No
Final = red
I also don't know why it wasn't referred... pic.twitter.com/bwTPSsA7bF
Captain Waqaniburotu confirmed post-match that he referred the incident to referee Ben O'Keeffe initially and no action was taken, before requesting it be looked at by the TMO.
Fiji coach John McKee didn't give much away about his view on the incident, saying he was yet to look at the moment.
"I haven’t actually seen the footage yet but I don’t know maybe people take a look at it, I haven’t seen a replay yet," he said.
Cheika said he was similarly unsure about the incident, having missed the specifics during the game.
"I really didn’t see it, saw the tackle but the one thing I know is the Fijian captain asked them to refer it and it went to the TMO and he told them that the tackle was fine," he said.
"I’ve only seen it afterwards, saw the collision, massive one but that’s what I do know about the incident."
Before giving his view on the Hodge incident, though, Cheika deflected attention to the “severe focus” the referees put on Pocock.
“The stuff on the ground, I’m not quite sure what’s going on but the team of three were talking about David Pocock before the ball even, from the first minute of the game,” he said.
“I'm not sure why, I heard his name mentioned between then on the commentary at least a half a dozen times in their own chat, he hadn't even been involved in a ruck and I'm not sure what the focus is upon him, he's only played on, he's been out all year, I'm not sure what he's done.
“There was a severe focus on him, his name’s been called all the time so I was a little bit surprised by that.”
Pocock stayed out of the discussion when asked about it post-match, happy to leave that to Cheika and the public.
“I think generally refs are doing a really good job, as long as there's clear communication and consistency as a player, that's all you can ask for,” he said.
“We'll leave those conversations in public to other people and have a look at the tape and take it from there.
“After a game you're trying to look at things that worked, things that didn't work, there's clearly a bit of improvement across the board.
“At the ruck it was hotly contested, we lost a few, we got a couple of turnovers but that'll be something that we'll be looking to build on going forward.”
Asked if he felt his strength on the ball might generally lead to more attention coming his way, he said he hoped his profile wasn’t coming into any refereeing decisions.
“You'd hope not, you hope it's the same for everyone regardless of who's there contesting so give the refs the benefit of the doubt there,” he said.
The Wallabies travel to Tokyo on Sunday ahead of next weekend's Wales game while Fiji take on Uruguay.
