Mark Sexton believes that Hugh Cooney has paid a high price for a split-second incident that has ruled the Ireland centre out of the rest of the World Rugby U20 Championships.
Cooney was sent off for a dangerous tackle on England's Jacob Cusick five minutes from the end of the sides’ 34-34 draw on Saturday. After clashing heads with the England replacement, Cooney failed a head injury assessment, which means a mandatory 12-day rest period.
The Leinster academy player’s challenge was deemed to fall into the six-game sanction category, which was reduced to three by mitigation. In addition, the completion of the World Rugby coaching intervention programme would further reduce the ban to two games.
However, speaking ahead of this morning’s Pool B game against Australia (10am), attack and backs coach Sexton confirmed that the suspension will only kick in after his rest period is up, thus ruling the Clontarf player out of the rest of tournament.
"It’s a tough one," said Sexton. "I think the English player dropped .4 of a metre in a split second or something outrageous, that is difficult to manage.
"Ultimately, from our point of view, player safety and player welfare comes first.
"Throughout our academies and throughout Irish rugby, we talk about safety and every day we do tackle technique in terms of safety, staying low, making sure that our tackle height is low, that we’re dropping before contact.
"There were so many circumstances within that tackle. But if you look through the 20s this year, you look through the senior team, we were yet to concede a red card in contact, I think that might have been our first from an Irish team this season.
"I think we were unfortunate that that happened but we are keeping in mind that we have to get better."
Sexton (above), who will join Connacht’s backroom team next season, added: "I think it is harsh.
"The unfairness is the fact that he had a HIA and he misses two games and then his ban comes on the tail end of that HIA. I think that’s the unfairness.
"Ultimately, if you get a red card in rugby we have to be aware of the consequences. The two or three- game ban is on the side of fairness."
Back-row James McNabney (above) also spoke about the squad’s work on tackle technique.
"You just start with your technical accuracy in training every day," he said.
"It's a thing we always work on as a team, you can't have the thought of a yellow or red card in your mind, that's when it's going to come into your game.
"If you try not to think about that and are technically right in training then it shouldn't come into your game.
"Some things come in that are uncontrollable, but you just have to deal with it as best as you can."
Ireland, who won the Grand Slam last spring, took three points from their opening game, while Australia beat Fiji and lead the pool.
The top team from each of the three pools qualifies for the semi-finals, along with the best second-placed team.
The game starts at 11am South Africa time in Paarl and Ulster’s McNabney says they are all set for the early kick-off.
"Everything jut moves forward slightly," said the Ballymena man, who scored Ireland's third try against England.
"We've been preparing for this to come up for a while. In the last four or five weeks we've been getting up early, everything was pushed to early in the morning, so the players were used to it.
"I milk cows at home, so getting up early in the morning isn't something I struggle with.
"We've been preparing hard for that, so I think it's worked, players are awake at seven in the morning ready for a team meeting and we'll be ready for kick-off when it comes."
Ireland U20: Henry McErlean; Andrew Osborne, Hugh Gavin, John Devine, James Nicholson; Sam Prendergast, Fintan Gunne; Paddy McCarthy, Gus McCarthy (capt), Ronan Foxe; Charlie Irvine, Conor O'Tighearnaigh; James McNabney, Ruadhan Quinn, Brian Gleeson.
Replacements: Danny Sheahan, George Morris, Fiachna Barrett, Evan O'Connell, Diarmuid Mangan, Jack Oliver, Harry West, Rory Telfer.
Australia U20: Mason Gordon; Tim Ryan, Henry O'Donnell, David Vaihu, Darby Lancaster; Jack Bowen, Teddy Wilson (capt); Jack Barrett, Max Craig, Massimo De Lutiis; Jhy Legg, Daniel Maiava-Tapusoa; Lachlan Hooper, Ned Slack-Smith, John Bryant.
Replacements: Liam Bowron, Harrison Usher, Nick Bloomfield, Toby Macpherson, Leafi Heka Talataina, Klayton Thorn, Harry McLaughlin-Phillips, Taj Annan.
Follow a live blog of Ireland v Australia on RTÉ Sport Online and the RTÉ News app from 9.45am
