Furious Western Force coach Simon Cron has unloaded on Super Rugby Pacific officials as it emerged young playmaker Jake Strachan will be sidelined for more than a month.
Cron told reporters Strachan’s concussion – the result of NSW Waratahs firebrand Lachie Swinton’s late hit – was expected to keep him out for “four to five weeks.”
Swinton, a member of Eddie Jones’ Wallabies camp on the Gold Coast, will miss the rest of the regular season after SANZAAR came down hard on the ill-disciplined flanker.
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But that was cold comfort to the usually mild-mannered Cron, who gave TMO David Conway and his fellow officials both barrels.
“We saw it live, everyone I’ve talked to saw it live and yet two guys in the box with nine cameras missed it,” Cron said.
“So you’ve got to ask the question – did they miss it, or did they choose to miss it? Because I don’t understand how you could miss it.”
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Strachan was flattened by the first minute hit but played on until early in the second half after being given clearance from an independent doctor.
As well as taking aim at the officials, Cron was also looking in the mirror over an issue with no winners.
“I wish I picked up that he was not good,” Cron said of the 26-year-old Brisbane product.
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“He was battling to make any calls, structure, system-wise. We had some young leaders out there and they said to me after the game that ‘he wasn’t talking to us.’
“If I had known that, I would have pulled him off immediately. I wish that I had picked up on that myself from the box. I’m disappointed in us we didn’t see it.
“I felt bad for Strachy because that’s risky, it scares me. But ultimately, I think that if it had been dealt with properly the first time (by the TMO), it would have been a lot clearer for everyone.”
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Swinton, a 26-year-old with seven Tests to his name, is now at long odds to crack Australia’s Rugby World Cup squad.
His ban is the longest for an Aussie Super Rugby player since Chance Peni also copped seven weeks in 2018.
“He knows he got it wrong and he is gutted, because he knows he has let the team down,” Swinton’s Waratahs and Wallabies teammate Jed Holloway said.
“That was his best game since coming back from the shoulder, he was whacking blokes, he was carrying well, his lineout was great.
“We love Swinno and we have seen the growth he has made in his game around the discipline and stuff. It is disappointing he has put himself in that situation but he is the first one to put his hand up and own it as well.”
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