Australia’s Samu Kerevi Left ‘Bemused’ By Patchell Penalty Controversy

“This is a collision sport,”

Australia’s Samu Kerevi was left ‘bemused’ yesterday after he was penalised for a fend on Rhys Patchell in the defeat to Wales that proved to be very costly.

Captain Michael Hooper challenged referee Romain Poite during the game, while head coach Michael Cheika launched a stinging attack on the standard of refereeing in his post-match press conference.

Kerevi meanwhile reckons he might as well “join the NRL” if they continue to police him like that.

“The run I did, the way rugby’s going I may as well join the NRL next because of how they police it,” Kerevi said with a smile.

“It’s a hard decision for the referees, obviously I understand that; I guess I’ve got to change the technique, the way I run. But I guess everyone’s already talking about, I’ve respect what the referee decides and I’ve just got to move on from that.”

On Patchell’s tackle, which many feel was far too high, leaving Kerevi no option but to fend the way he did – the centre says Patchell was just trying to do his job as he was. But Kerevi does feel the tackle should have been lower.

“The type of tackle should be going low; I thought that was what we were meant to do,” Kerevi added

“So he’s going low and I’m going high.

“This is not a contact sport, this is a collision sport, and if you want to play touch, go play basketball. But we’re here to run straight at people, use feet, whatever. But I think he’s just doing his job, I’m just trying to do mine.

“I don’t have to do too much to change the way I play, the boys are really getting around me. I think I’ve just got to be careful and not put my team in that situation because I feel like I let the team down. And obviously he [Patchell] slotted a penalty from there, so that’s three points they could have gone without.”

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