Former Wallabies lock Justin Harrison believes England pest Jonny Hill deserves further scrutiny for his role in a wild Ella-Mobbs Test match in Perth on Saturday night.
Hill copped a yellow card for his first half run-in with Australian opposite Darcy Swain.
The Englishman pulled Swain’s hair in what appeared a deliberate tactic to upset his younger rival, who fell into the trap with a brain snap headbutt that rightfully earned a red card.
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Wallabies lock sent off for headbutt
But Nine and Stan Sport’s cameras picked up on earlier niggle from Hill that led to Swain seeing red – shoving the Wallaby in the face forcefully with two hands.
“ That’s attacking the head of another player with both hands,” Harrison said.
“I’d be very surprised if the independent citing commissioner didn’t have a look at this game and want to have a closer look at that one.
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“Jonny Hill better keep his suit fresh for maybe a judicial hearing.”
Swain will almost certainly miss the rest of the three-Test series for the headbutt.
”As soon as he (referee James Doleman) used the words headbutt, that was it,” former Wallaby Morgan Turinui said.
“If you’re using your head as a weapon… in terms of force it was not high but he is paying a justified harsh price for that.”
All Blacks legend Andrew Mehrtens added that it was “very hard to justify a headbutt in any situation isn’t it?”
Australia’s 30-28 win snapped an eight game losing streak against England dating back to 2016.
Game over for Banks after nasty fall
Their last win over the old enemy was in the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
It was a wild night from start to finish.
Wallabies five-eighth Quade Cooper succumbed to “calf awareness” in warmups and pulled out of the Test.
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Nerveless Noah Lolesio came into the starting lineup as James O’Connor was whisked out of a suit at a corporate function to take his place on the Wallabies bench.
Fullback Tom Banks suffered a horrible injury which allowed Jordan Petaia the chance to strut his stuff at the top level.
Petaia scored a try and might not look back on the way through to next year’s World Cup.
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Already without trump card Taniela Tupou, prop Allan Alaalatoa then failed a HIA as Mr Dependable James Slipper stepped up to do a manful job on the relatively unfamiliar tighthead side of the scrum.
“We had to dig deep, go to the well there a bit today and come up with a lot of solutions,” Wallabies captain Michael Hooper said.
“I’m really proud of our guys and the effort put in. How good is sport in the sense you can’t script that stuff. You have all these plans and they go out the window.”
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