Advertisement League of Ireland Horse Racing TV Listings GAA Fixtures The Video Review Sport meets news, current affairs, society & pop culture Rugby Weekly Extra Dive into all the news and analysis 3 times a week The Football Family Weekly insights from the week’s big talking points Advertisement More Stories The Lions celebrate in Melbourne.James Crombie/INPHO Freedivisive Schmidt slams late decision but Farrell says it was 'brilliant clearout' The Wallabies boss wasn’t impressed with the late call on Jac Morgan’s clearout. 3.04pm, 26 Jul 2025 Share options Murray Kinsella Reports from the MCG IT’S A PITY that such a brilliant game of rugby had to involve a TMO review of a clear out right at the death before the outcome of the match could be confirmed. The Lions had already started celebrating wildly when Hugo Keenan dotted down, only for TMO Eric Gauzins to flag a potentially illegal clearout by Lions flanker Jac Morgan on Australia’s Carlo Tizzano just before the score. In the end, Piardi and co. decided that Morgan hadn’t committed foul play and the try stood. So the Lions’ celebrations kicked off in earnest. But the decision left Wallabies boss Joe Schmidt fuming. “I think everyone can make their own decision on that,” said Schmidt after his side’s 29-26 defeat. “You just have to read Law 9.20 and you just have to listen to the description from the referee and then watch the vision when two players are described as arriving at the same time. Just watch the footage.” Schmidt was asked how match officials can get such big decisions wrong, in his view. “Because they are human,” said Schmidt. “Players make errors. Match officials make errors. “Our perspective is we felt it was a decision that doesn’t really live up to the big player safety push that they are talking about. You cannot hit someone above the levels of the shoulders and there’s no bind with the left arm, his hand is on the ground. That’s what we have seen. We have watched a number of replays from different angles, so it is what it is. We just have to accept it.” Schmidt said he believed the sheer gravity of the moment had played into a decision that he felt was incorrect. The Lions, of course, had a very different view of the clear out by Morgan. “I thought it was a brilliant clear out,” said Lions head coach Andy Farrell. Advertisement “It depends which side of the fence you come from. I can understand people’s opinions. I thought Jac was brilliant when he came on and so were the rest of the bench.” Billy Stickland / INPHO Billy Stickland / INPHO / INPHO Try-scorer Keenan was of the same view. “To be honest, once I saw the clearout, I was pretty confident,” said Keenan. “I don’t think there was any foul play in it and I was confident that the refs would make the right call.” Wallabies boss Schmidt also questioned Dan Sheehan’s first-half try. The Lions hooker tapped a five-metre penalty and rather than carrying the ball low to the ground, he dove right over the top of James Slipper and Dave Porecki to score. “I think one of the things is that World Rugby are trying to make sure that we are tackling lower and so we had two tacklers going in to tackle low and he dived and scored,” said Schmidt. “I can see according to the law how can that just be diving and scoring. It is illegal to jump the tackle, but he dived over. “What it now challenges World Rugby to do is that if we have two guys going in low and a guy dives over that, he is pretty much headfirst, so what do we do to stop him scoring apart from stopping his head? There’s not much else you can do. “I feel for the players because they get backed into a corner around head contact and it is such a taboo subject and we’re trying to make the game safer. “In contrast, you have got Dan diving over to score and you have got in all the laws, it is head or neck contact. You have got a contrast there that I guess we will look back at and ask some questions on.” Murray Kinsella Viewcomments Send Tip or Correction Embed this post To embed this post, copy the code below on your site Email “Schmidt slams late decision but Farrell says it was 'brilliant clearout'”. Recipient's Email Feedback on “Schmidt slams late decision but Farrell says it was 'brilliant clearout'”. Your Feedback Your Email (optional) Report a Comment Please select the reason for reporting this comment. Please give full details of the problem with the comment... This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic. Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy before taking part. Leave a Comment Submit a report Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines. Damaging the good reputation of someone, slander, or libel. Racism or Hate speech An attack on an individual or group based on religion, race, gender, or beliefs. 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