Boyd slams Fa'auli's sickening hit on Goosen
REACTION: Hurricanes head coach Chris Boyd slammed Chiefs centre Johnny Fa’auli’s sickening act of foul play during their encounter in Hamilton Friday.
Fa’auli was shown a red card for a high no-arms shot on Wes Goosen during the match, which the Chiefs won 28-24. The incident has left Goosen in doubt for next weekend’s quarterfinal.
The two teams will meet again in Wellington next week.
“He’s [Goosen] failed two HIAs so he’s probably somewhere less than 50-50 for next week, which is disappointing for him,” Boyd told stuff.co.nz. “Probably don’t need to say more about that.”
When asked about the incident again, Boyd added: “I mean, I don’t like to see a red card in any game, but red is red, and you don’t get a more obvious red card than that. That was shoulder, no arms, straight to the head, with force, with intent. There’s no butting out of any of that.
“So that was a deliberate act. The Chiefs will be disappointed with that action, I’m assuming the player will be disappointed with that action. And at the end of the day, he got, in the end, what was necessary.”
Let’s hope Wes is ok after that @Hurricanesrugby #CHIvHUR
— Hurricanes Rugby (@Hurricanesrugby) July 13, 2018
Chiefs head coach Colin Cooper was not impressed with his player’s actions on the field.
“It’s disappointing,” he said. “He’s [Fa’auli] better than that. He looks to stamp his mark defensively, but he’s got to do it within the rules, he just can’t drift up, particularly towards the head.”
Tackling technique is something that Fa’auli has been working on after a few illegal hits in the past.
“That’s the first one he let go [for some time],” Cooper added. “If you go back to the Reds, he did that to their big power No.8. When he gets it right he can do some damage. And I thought he contained their 12 [Ngani Laumape], we moved him in to help defend that area, and I felt where they exposed the Blues they didn’t get through there. So he has to take a lot credit for that, and Anton [Lienert-Brown].”
Source: stuff.co.nz
