’54Gs of force through his neck’: Online abuse, sore neck see Tizzano left out of third Test

3 months ago 9

A rattled Carlo Tizzano was left out of the Wallabies side for the third Lions Test in Sydney “to take a deep breath”, after the controversial final ruck at the MCG left him dealing with a sore neck and a week of online abuse.

Coach Joe Schmidt revealed the intense pressures endured by Tizzano - on and off the field - when explaining why he had not named the 25-year-old flanker for the third Test.

The Force openside had been on the bench for the first three Tests of the year, but found himself in the middle of a controversy when he was cleaned out with a hit to his neck by Jac Morgan in the last ruck at the MCG.

English podcaster James Haskell led the trolling by saying Tizzano deserved a red card for diving. Schmidt defended Tizzano by saying his instrumented mouthguard had registered a “high magnitude” impact, but confirmed he had not suffered a concussion.

“He’s had a really tough week, obviously, Carlo. He’s copped a lot of online abuse,” Schmidt said.

“The only thing I’d say about ... the defence of Carlo, there were just over 54Gs of force, direct force that went through the neck, along with almost 2200 rads of rotational force, which is enough to cause a serious injury.

“Not to a rugby player who is as well conditioned as Carlo, but he’s probably best just left to take a deep breath.

“We’re all aware of Newton’s third law [of motion] that for every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction. When that force hits him and the speed of his head collapsing down, he recoiled out the back of the ruck.

“And I don’t think he wanted to recoil like that, but that’s the nature of force. So I think for Carlo it’s better he sits this one out. We weren’t sure about him on Tuesday, he was still pretty sore.”

For a male player, the force required to trigger an alert for a possible HIA is 70G and 4000 radians per second.

Carlo Tizzano of the Wallabies receives medical attention after the clash with Jac Morgan.

Tizzano is active on social media but Schmidt advised the flanker to stay off it.

“I’ve advised Carlo to stay away from the media full stop and the opinions that are out there,” he said. “We’ve tried to just deal in the facts and … what’s law, and what forces occurred. And to let him know … we have faith in him.”

Wallabies and Force teammate Dylan Pietsch said Tizzano had been affected but bounced back.

“At the start of the week, [he was] obviously a bit flat when you get a fair bit of heat on you. But Carlo is such a resilient, competitive person,” Pietsch said.

Harry Wilson of the Wallabies speaks to referee Andrea Piardi about the last try.

“If you know Carlo, he knows how to process stuff and go on with his job. At the start, it probably rattled him a bit. But he’s such a good ball of energy. Not many things phase him for too long. That’s a real testament to his character.”

Lions coach Andy Farrell said: “Online abuse, it’s clear and obvious, it’s disgusting. It shouldn’t be that way.”

Schmidt said he had spoken with World Rugby about the review of contentious incidents in the second Test, but would keep it private and move the team on.

“We’ve got a Test in 48 hours, and you can lament all sorts of things,” he said.

“I actually feel like Andrea Piardi had a good game. There’s a couple of decisions we might not agree with, but I thought he refereed well. We’re not looking at refereeing decisions, we’re looking at what we could have done better.

“But also, there was a real deflation in the players and so we also looked at some of the good things we did. My belief is that 18 months ago, no-one gave us a chance of challenging the Lions. In total, it’s three tries apiece and four tries to three, and not nearly as much between the teams as maybe people might have expected.”

Schmidt said the Wallabies had come up with some solutions to combat the “Superman” dive, after also seeking clarity about Dan Sheehan’s try.

“I guess the worry is what kids see on TV, what club players see on TV they tend to try to emulate, and I guess that’s one of the things they tried to clear up with the law clarification in 2022.

“They underpinned it with if there is any extent of dangerous play then a try cannot be the reward.

“Now I’m not saying that it wasn’t a try, because I’m not sure how to assess the danger. I guess that’s one of the things that World Rugby will probably go back and have a look at. And then if they need to make further clarification we’ll get feedback on that.”

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