Australia head coach Joe Schmidt appears unlikely to face disciplinary action for his comments about the match officials in Saturday's defeat to the British and Irish Lions, but World Rugby chief executive Alan Gilpin has said he is "disappointed" with the Wallabies boss.
Schmidt reacted angrily to Saturday’s 29-26 defeat to the Lions, which was decided by a final-minute try from Hugo Keenan.
The try was eventually awarded to the Lions after a lengthy TMO check, which ruled that there was no foul play in Jac Morgan’s clear-out on Australia flanker Carlo Tizzano.
Schmidt claimed that the decision flew in the face of World Rugby’s player safety drive, and that was backed by Rugby Australia CEO Phil Waugh, who called for "accountability" from the game’s governing body.
Waugh didn’t have to wait long to meet with World Rugby, with Sydney harbour hosting an event where the ticketing strategy for the 2027 Men’s Rugby World Cup was announced.
The Rugby Australia chief didn’t speak publicly at the event, but stood alongside both World Rugby’s chair Brett Robinson, and CEO Alan Gilpin.
Gilpin did address Saturday’s controversial ending, and said he was specifically disappointed by Schmidt’s comments about World Rugby’s attitude towards player safety.
"I think it is disappointing when the reaction is one of, 'this means player welfare isn’t taken seriously’," Gilpin said.
"We have worked really hard on that narrative. Everyone knows we are putting player welfare, in its broadest sense, at the top of the agenda. You can see that from what we are doing with the instrumented mouthguards, all the research, the science, the investigations.
"The way the laws of the game have evolved in the last few years is all about, ‘How do we have this great physical contest, but make it as safe as possible?’.
"That part is challenging, in terms of the player welfare statements [by Schmidt etc], but we have a fantastic sport, played in front of an amazing crowd; an amazing game – it’s going to create talking points. We know that.
"As long as that continues to be a respectful debate then we’ve all got to lean into it."
However, while Gilpin wasn’t pleased with the reaction of the Wallabies boss, he suggested Schmidt (above) – who previously worked World Rugby as their director of high performance – would not be sanctioned.
"I think Joe... there's a lot of emotion, understandably. The Wallabies had a chance to win an amazing Test match, so we understand the emotion involved in that.
"Joe's comments have continued to respect the fact that the match officials have got a tough job to do. He might disagree with the decisions that were made, but I don't think he's called the integrity of our match officials into question.
"I had a good chat with Phil [Waugh] here, we've still got some, obviously some work to do with Rugby Australia, again, to clarify to them the position, but yeah, it's about respectful dialogue.
"This is one of the great things about rugby, right? We can have these disagreements around the interpretation of the laws and around, again, magical games like Saturday, and then we all move on. Like the players," Gilpin added.
The World Rugby chief spoke out in support of the match referee, Andrea Piardi, and the rest of his team of officials.
However, it was notable that although he gave them his full backing, he stopped short of saying whether or not they made the correct decision.
"Emotions understandably run very high when a compelling and fiercely contested match such as the one we saw goes down to the wire. In those tight contests, decisions made in crucial moments inevitably drive a lot of scrutiny.
"While, from a World Rugby perspective, we always say we do not publicly comment on match officials’ decisions, given the nature of the commentary surrounding last weekend, we just want to express our support for the match officials involved.
"There is no other position on the field that is under the scrutiny our match officials are under, and yet they do an incredible job under that pressure they are under in a live environment.
"I think it is fair to say that when the refereeing groups review decisions, they review them with the coaches and across the game. We are always proud to support our officials in that review process and that is what we are doing now and in the coming days with our colleagues from Australia and the Lions."
Lions fly-half Finn Russell had accused Tizzano of making the most of the challenge, stating that he "obviously holds his head and tried to get a penalty from it".
But, having being relayed Gilpin's comments earlier on Tuesday, Schmidt revealed the extent of the damage sustained by the Wallabies flanker.
"Talking about the instrumental mouthguards, with Carlo when he was hit, I feel sorry for him because he’s copping a lot of flak, but that impact was almost double what they determine as a high magnitude impact," Schmidt told Stan Sports.
"So that’s the degree of force that he had to wear. And that in itself is enough to force someone to recoil as he did. So those are some of the things that we get actual readings on.
"He’s had a pretty sore neck for the last 24-48 hours. But he’s back, he’s resilient and he’s back looking forward to the weekend."
Meanwhile, it was confirmed that the 2027 Rugby World Cup will see more than one million tickets available from as low as €57 ($100AUS), while the cheapest adult tickets will be available from €22.50 ($40AUS).
Follow a live blog of Australia v British and Irish Lions on Saturday from 11am on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app
