Samoa coach Matt Parish has slammed referee Ashley Klein’s “weak” decision to only send Angus Crichton to the sin-bin for his rogue forearm on Chanel Harris-Tavita, which saw the Samoan star take no further part in their 30-10 Rugby League World Cup loss.
In the 45th minute, Crichton scooped up a loose ball off a Val Holmes knock-on as play stopped.
Appearing to play to the whistle, Harris-Tavita moved in to put a tackle on Crichton, when the Aussie raised his forearm to defend against the Samoan, copping him flush on the jaw.
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Harris-Tavita was down for the count, and commentators upon seeing replays suggested Crichton’s night might have been over, before Klein put the Roosters star on report and into the bin for 10 minutes.
But Parish was later fuming Crichton wasn’t sent off for the remainder of the game.
“Five minutes into the second half our hooker gets elbowed in the head and gets carted off, then the referee makes a weak decision and puts him in the bin, dumbfounded,” Parish said after the game.
“An elbow to the head and the hooker gets knocked out and taken out of the game.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Kangaroos coach Mal Meninga thought even being sent to the bin was too much.
“My view is that he should have stayed on the field, that’s just silly,” he said.
Crichton later revealed he had spoken to Harris-Tavita to apologise, and would be travelling with him in the coming weeks.
”He’s a great player and I am actually meant to be travelling with him after this so there’s no bad blood between me and Chanel … I am genuinely sorry for that, it was not my intention at all,” he said.
“I didn’t know he was coming and there was no malice at all, sending out my blessings to his family.
“It was just a genuine reaction, I never go out on the field to try and hurt someone.”
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