By Liam Napier in Toulouse
Ethan de Groot’s Rugby World Cup fate is imminent.
The All Blacks prop will front an independent judicial hearing in Paris on Monday (overnight Tuesday NZT) after receiving a red card late in the 71-3 rout of Namibia in Toulouse last weekend.
De Groot faces suspension unless the All Blacks successfully dispute his “charging without attempting to grasp the opponent” charge.
All Blacks coach Ian Foster is expected to assist de Groot and general counsel Stephen Cottrell by collectively travelling to Paris where they will front an independent disciplinary committee comprising chair Brenda Heather-Latu (Samoa) and former players John Langford (Australia) and Leon Lloyd (England).
While they will defend de Groot the unpredictable nature of these often lengthy hearings, and the lack of consistency around suspensions and cards at the World Cup, leaves the All Blacks preparing for all possible outcomes.
“We’re confident we’ve got a good case but you’ve got to plan for that not happening so those sorts of conversations are chipping away in the background now,” All Blacks forwards coach Jason Ryan said as the team started their review of the Namibia match before travelling to Bordeaux for a mini camp prior to their next pool match against Italy in two weeks.
“We’ll show the clear pictures of what it was. We’re pretty confident we’ve got a good case around the shoulder to shoulder.”
That argument is strengthened by de Groot’s hit causing Namibian loose forward Adriaan Booysen to suffer a dislocated shoulder in the incident. The All Blacks loosehead did not, however, help himself by failing to lower his body height. The charge also suggests de Groot did not wrap his arm in the tackle.
If de Groot is suspended he can reduce the length by one week by completing World Rugby’s online tackle school.
Tournament rules dictate suspended players cannot be replaced. Should de Groot be ruled out for any period, Ryan backed Ofa Tu’ungafasi and Tamaiti Williams, the latter yet to make his World Cup debut, to step into the loosehead void.
While de Groot struggled at scrum time in defeats to the Springboks and France in recent weeks he has established his presence as the bolted on starting All Blacks loosehead for the past year and would, therefore, be a major loss.
“There were probably questions around how many front-rowers we took when we first named the squad and now it’s going to be used,” Ryan said. “We’re more than confident in Tamaiti and the next man in. We’ll just get on with it.”
Fellow All Blacks front-rower Tyrel Lomax offered an insight after de Groot cut a dejected figure when he learned his yellow card was upgraded to a red.
“Fingers crossed for his hearing but he was definitely gutted after the game,” Lomax said.
After copping two red cards, following Scott Barrett’s dismissal for two yellow cards in the record defeat to the Springboks at Twickenham, in their last three tests the All Blacks plan to replicate the likelihood they could well encounter more adversity at this World Cup.
“We’ll be training with a few less numbers and doing a couple of scenario-based things will be important for us because that’s what we’re seeing - cards and discipline,” Ryan said. “We can’t move away from that.”
The All Blacks were largely satisfied with crushing Namibia to regain confidence after their tournament-opening loss to France. Ryan quickly identified areas they will target as they juggle a two-week wait before their defining pool game with Italy in Lyon.
“It was a dominant performance and a couple of areas we’d been working on around our set piece and defence we made some good strides and we needed to. It was a game we needed to put them away to set us up for what’s ahead. This week is by no means a week off for us.
“It’s a test week off but we’ve got some hard trainings to sharpen a couple of areas of our game that will be important for the Italy test match - our carry and clean we lost a couple of balls in contact and our discipline under pressure.
“I’ve been looking at Italy since the end of our game. This is a big test match for us, probably one of our biggest for a long time.”
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England players were questioned by police as soon as they landed at Christchurch Airport.