Wallaby Darcy Swain banned for six weeks for ruck incident against New Zealand

Australia’s Darcy Swain has been suspended for six weeks for the incident in last week’s Bledisloe Cup match that left New Zealand’s Quinn Tupaea with a bad knee injury.

Tupaea suffered a ruptured medial cruciate ligament and a partial anterior cruciate ligament tear in his left knee after Swain entered a ruck and made firm contact with the All Black’s outstretched left leg.

Swain, who received a yellow card, was cited after the match at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium.

The ban imposed by a Sanzaar judicial committee hearing will extend to 6 November, ruling Swain out of Saturday’s return, as well as the tour matches against Scotland at Murrayfield on 30 October and France in Paris on 6 November.

He was also named in the squad for next month’s Australia A tour of Japan, which might have made him available for the full national team earlier had the suspension been based on a certain number of matches, but any controversy over that selection is now moot since his ban is based on time.

Swain was found guilty of a “reckless or dangerous” act, which the chair of the judicial committee, Andre Oosthuizen SC, said met the threshold for a red card.

The committee found the incident was not intentional, but was “highly reckless”.

After the Test, the All Blacks coach, Ian Foster, said: “We’ve got a player who’s probably out for nine months and you’re not allowed to target legs on the side at cleanout past the ball. The rules are pretty clear.”

The Wallabies coach, Dave Rennie, was of a different opinion.

“I’m not convinced about Darcy’s [yellow card],” Rennie said. “It was certainly nothing intentional. Ironically, he got neck-rolled prior to him cleaning out, but that wasn’t picked up.”

In better news for the Wallabies, Cadeyrn Neville has made a full recovery from his knee injury picked up against England and will start in the second row in Auckland.

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