International tours/New Zealand - 36 England - 12: As a battered England squad flew from New Zealand to Australia yesterday, their sense of frustration far outweighed their collective baggage allowance. Playing with 14 men for almost 70 minutes of a pivotal Test against the All Blacks is bad enough but discovering their lock Simon Shaw's sending-off was a cruel mistake has made their 2-0 series defeat even harder to take.
By midday, in a whirl of disciplinary activity which culminated in a ban until August 31st for Danny Grewcock for stamping on the head of Daniel Carter, the case against Shaw had collapsed, his 12th-minute sending-off for kneeing Keith Robinson at a ruck thrown out on a legal technicality.
The 6ft 9in Wasps forward was acquitted because the Welsh referee Nigel Williams and his Australian touch judge Stuart Dickinson asked the video match official to confirm Shaw's involvement, a luxury the laws do not permit.
Sadly this meant the three-man panel, chaired by Australia's Michael Goodwin, were not required to judge whether Dickinson, whose intervention led to Shaw's expulsion, had been guilty of a massive over-reaction.
Given that the 31-year-old Shaw, renowned as one of the game's gentler giants, made only clumsy contact with his opposite number's arm and shoulder blade and that Dickinson was 40 metres away, it would have been even more satisfactory had the player been fully exonerated.
He is now available for Saturday's Test against Australia but Shaw admitted he had been shaken by the incident. "The rucking was clumsy but there was never any malicious intent on my part," he said. "So, when the referee brought out a red card, I was astonished."
"You don't guess a red card," insisted Dickinson, standing by the advice which referee Williams could not ignore. Woodward, however, refused to retract his loud post-match complaints when he described the red card as "a ridiculous call" which had left "a sour taste".
Woodward was required to stay up until 4.30 a.m. studying video replays with the team's QC Richard Smith. In the case of Grewcock, however, the Australian match citing commissioner Dennis Wheelahan spotted what was found to be a "careless and reckless" piece of stamping on Carter in the 59th minute and the short-fused Bath captain, who has now failed to see out the last three England tours, received a six-week ban.
Woodward indicated he felt both players had received "the right verdict" but would not accept England had overstepped the mark, pointing out his side conceded only five penalties compared with 17 by the All Blacks.
No one is saying England would have won had Shaw stayed on but a Charlie Hodgson penalty at that stage would have given his side a 9-0 lead. Instead, having also lost both their first-choice centres before half-time, the visitors were doomed even before Joe Rokocoko scored a hat-trick of tries.
The entire back row performed heroically and, if Graham Henry was entitled to highlight the two-Test try-count of 8-0, Woodward could not fault the effort of his team who trailed only 10-6 at the break. Though Josh Lewsey and Ben Cohen had games to forget, Rokocoko is currently the best wing in the world. He has 21 tries in 14 Tests and might have had a fourth here had the All Blacks' first try not been awarded to Carter by a hairline video ref decision.
NEW ZEALAND: Evans, Muliaina, Umaga, Carter, Rokocoko, Spencer, Marshall, Meeuws, Mealamu, Hayman, Jack, Robinson, Gibbes, Holah, Rush. Tries: Carter, Rokocoko 3, Spencer. Cons: Carter 4. Pens: Carter. Replacements: Mehrtens for Evans (58), Tuitupou for Carter (72), Hore for Mealamu (78), Woodcock for Hayman (38). Sin Bin: Holah (69).
ENGLAND: Lewsey, Voyce, Tindall, Abbott, Cohen, Hodgson, Gomarsall, Woodman, Regan, White, Shaw, Borthwick, J. Worsley, Hill, Dallaglio. Pens: Hodgson 4. Replacements: Barkley for Tindall (33), Waters for Abbott (27), M Dawson for Gomarsall (58), Stevens for Woodman (58), Titterell for Regan (58), Grewcock for Borthwick (58), Lipman for Hill (50). Sent Off: Shaw (11).
