Nigel Owens says that Andrew Porter should have been shown a red card during Ireland's victory over the All Blacks in Wellington on Saturday.
The Ireland loosehead prop was shown a yellow card in the 48th minute for a high tackle on Brodie Retallick. The All Blacks second row suffered a broken cheekbone in the collision.
Porter was later cited for the tackle. However, the complaint was dismissed as the incident "did not meet the red card threshold due to the absorbing nature of the tackle."
16 July 2022; Andrew Porter of Ireland looks in from the sin bin after receiving a yellow card during the third test against the All Blacks at Sky Stadium in Wellington, New Zealand. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
Nigel Owens on Andrew Porter tackle vs All Blacks
"Andrew Porter's potential red card, a very interesting one here," said Owens in this week's episode of World Rugby series Whistle Watch.
"We spoke about the red card in the New Zealand game last week, where (Garry) Ringrose steps inside and [Angus Ta’avao] reacts in less than half a second to try to adjust his tackle height and failed to do so.
"Under the current guidelines he was correctly sent off by Jaco Peyper. What we have this week with Porter is very different. Porter is upright, he has all the time in the world now to change his body angle and get his tackle height low and chooses not to.
"There’s nothing wrong with that but when you get it wrong, when you make that head contact as he did - it should be a red card.
"When players have time to adjust, they need to adjust and get the tackle down for the safety of the game, the opposition player and themselves as well."
Owens also addressed a clearout by Bundee Aki on Ofa Tu'ungafasi early in the second half.
"Some of you eagle-eyed watchers from the game will have seen a Bundee Aki clearout, very interesting one here," said Owens.
"It looks like he may well have made head contact.
"It looks like it, but we can’t see. I've looked at all the angles. Now what you don’t know as well is during the game the TMO would have been looking back at all those angles to see if he had any evidence to let the referee know, ‘I’ve got foul play here, so we need to check it.’
16 July 2022; Bundee Aki of Ireland is tackled by Ardie Savea of the All Blacks during the Steinlager Series match between the New Zealand and Ireland at Sky Stadium in Wellington, New Zealand. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
"So this is happening in the background. This is good because it doesn’t stop the game to check something and then come back and say, ‘There’s no foul play.’
"The TMO is looking at all this and there is no angle to show there’s head contact by Bundee Aki’s clearout.
"Bundee Aki's clearout is pretty much the way most players would clearout in the contact area. Yes, it's a little bit higher maybe than usual. Both players are high. When the referee and TMO look at this, or the TMO looks in the background, there is no foul play.
"This is probably why we haven't seen a citing because they've looked at all the evidence, and can't see any factual evidence that there was contact with the head. It's just a rugby collision, and there is no foul play."
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