A MOMENT OF madness from Sekope Kepu proved hugely costly for Australia as their European tour ended with an embarrassing 53-24 loss to Scotland at Murrayfield.
Two tries in three minutes from Tevita Kuridrani, both set up by Bernard Foley, helped the Wallabies come from 10-0 down to lead with half-time looming on Saturday.
However, Kepu was then shown a red card in the 39th minute, the prop rightly dismissed after thundering his shoulder into the head of Hamish Watson as he cleared out the flanker at a tackle.
Scotland, impressive in defeat against New Zealand last weekend, regained the lead from the resulting penalty courtesy of an Ali Price try, before making their numerical advantage count in emphatic fashion after the interval.
They had never managed more than three tries in a match against Australia, but finished with an extraordinary eight on this occasion and a record points haul versus the Wallabies.
As a result, former Wallabies skipper Stephen Moore ended his career with a thumping defeat. The vastly experienced hooker was warmly applauded when he came off after an hour.
Sale wing Byron McGuigan claimed two of Scotland’s tries, having been drafted in for his first international start at short notice when star full-back Stuart Hogg pulled out in the warm-up.
McGuigan’s first score was an opportunist one, as he booted a loose ball downfield from 40 metres before twice kicking on again and touching down, and he came close to claiming a second in the opening period as Scotland continued to attack with flair.
Australia’s initial response was strong, Kuridrani first touching down from a Foley grubber and then scoring again after the fly-half had collected his own kick down the left flank and offloaded out of a tackle superbly.
Yet the visitors’ good work was undone by Kepu’s needless charge on Watson, which led to the former being dismissed following a TMO review.
Although Price’s subsequent score was cancelled out by Kurtley Beale three minutes into the second half, Scotland were soon in total command as Australia’s under-manned defence was blown away.
Sean Maitland, Jonny Gray, Huw Jones and McGuigan all went over in quick succession to thrill the vocal home support, with gaps in Australia’s defence alarmingly easy to find.
Replacement Lopeti Timani claimed a consolation score for the Wallabies, his first at international level, but Scotland were far from finished, further tries from John Barclay and Stuart McInally rounding off a day to remember in Edinburgh.
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It needs to be banned immediately. Nash has opened up a can of worms here the GAA don’t seem prepared to deal with. TJ has already joined the party and the rumour is that Tony Kelly has been getting the ball almost into the 6 yard box at trainings down in Clare.
It’s extremely dangerous and anybody arguing otherwise almost certainly hasn’t played in goal or across the full back line. It had better not take sterilised full back or a collapsed throat to get this fixed.
Are u from Clare or something ?? Helmets are already there !! Does this mean u can’t shoot inside the box ?? Other players have been doing it for years and its just because Nash can hit them perfectly people are complaining.
I’m from Dublin, word has it Clare are going to be doing this even worse this year, and Kilkenny and Cork. I’m Sure the Dubs and Tipp and Galway are all lining up someone for it as well. I explained in another post how it’s distinctly different to open field play as the backs and goalkeepers movement and positioning is restricted.
Why don’t we just let them hoist the ball into the box and smack it 2 inches from peoples faces. There has to be a limit, the helmet wont stop broken rib and ruptured testicles. Players need to be given reasonable capacity to protect themselves. That can either take the form of a restricted carry distance or allowing them to rush the striker
It’s one of the most unique and exciting aspects of hurling.. if there are safety issues re players necks, there is nothing stopping neck guards being kept behind the goal, like face-masks are kept for short corners in field hockey.. clip them onto helmets like with ice hockey helmets.
So neck guards and cups for crotch protection. Should they just strap on full body armour to stand in goal? We got by fine for decades but one breach of the honour code has opened up the floodgates on this.
Honour code?.. it’s been done for decades.. DJ Carey was particularly adept at it.. plus penalty takers know there’s a risk of over carrying.. like Nash’s botched drop-shot effort in the final last year.. next up will be a ban on any form of point blank shooting.
It was never to this extent. The issue is that it forces the goal keeper and defenders into the most dangerous possible position on the hurling field, middle distance. In open play point blank shooting is grand because goal keepers and defenders have the opportunity to get into one of several safe positions, behind the man to hook, in close to block, out of the way altogether or far enough away that you can read the flight of the ball and block or dodge. It’s also not possible to get the same kind of power on a shot from open play as from a penalty.
But with these shots you’re too close to dodge or reasonably attempt to protect yourself but you’re not allowed move up to block. The rules force you to be in a position no player would get themselves in in open play because it’s dangerous. If they’re not going to stop the carry then they need to let the keeper and backs rush the striker
What nonsense, I’m surprised at Ger. Bearing in mind you can strike the ball even harder from the hand, does this mean you won’t be allow to shoot inside the box during open play either?
Declan Ryan tipperary and clonoulty-rossmore and former tipp manager was the man who invented the style, it’s a great skill and a penalty is a penalty, Ciaran there would want to cop himself on there and keep his bullshit to himself. That is all