Eye-gouging claims after All Blacks win

BY MARC HINTON IN MARSEILLE

Last updated 13:49 29/11/2009

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SCUFFLE: Richie McCaw gets caught up in a scuffle with the French.

All Black v France

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Richie McCaw walks out to take on France at the Velodrome Stadium in Marseille.

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A dark cloud may yet hover over the All Blacks' magnificent 39-12 victory over France today, with accusations of eye-gouging by a French player on Tony Woodcock floating around in the aftermath.

It is understood the All Blacks are upset that Woodcock copped a fairly brutal "facial" from a French player at a ruck late in the match, though immediately afterwards they had not been able to obtain clear video footage to enable the matter to be taken further.

It is not known at this stage whether any French player has been cited from the test, won in comprehensive fashion by the All Blacks as they brought the curtain down on their test year in style.

However, it's understood that Woodcock spoke about the incident to some team-mates and team officials after the match, and that he had described fingers in his mouth and eyes.

The All Blacks are unlikely to make a complaint to the citing commissioner unless they have clear video evidence to back it up.

A melee broke out on the sideline immediately after Conrad Smith waltzed over for his 71st-minute try, with both teams reacting fairly heatedly and some punches being thrown.

Some TV reports may have indicated that Woodcock was eye-gouged, and there was certainly some unhappy All Blacks at the time.

Both of the All Blacks' specialist coaches (who run the sideline in matches), Mike Cron and Mick Byrne, also got caught up in the fracas as they moved quickly to separate the warring factions.

Afterwards All Blacks skipper Richie McCaw indicated that he'd been unaware of any eye-gouging, though he did not exactly deny that any had taken place.

McCaw also denied another report alleging he'd copped a boot in the head which sparked the all-in.

"Neither of those were true, that's not why I reacted," said McCaw who was also named after the match as the IRB's player of the year.

"I just got caught in a horrible position and was trying to get out of that and the fellow underneath me thought I'd done something to him. That's why it started... that's just how it happened.

"I wasn't aware of any eye-gouging or being kicked or anything. That may have happened but I wasn't aware of it. It was just a bit of frustration on their part and reacting to something."

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France coach Marc Lievremont said he had no knowledge of why the dust-up started and seemed amused after he was told a couple of All Blacks coaches had got caught up in it.

"I didn't see the beginning of the fight, and I didn't see any officials in there," he said.

It would be a pity if the eye-gouging accusations deflect too heavily from what was a fantastic rugby test in which two teams went out looking to play open rugby, and obliged with a rare flowing contest to bring the curtain down on the autumn internationals.

The All Blacks produced their most complete test performance of the year as they ran in a season-high five tries, but were more than happy to pay tribute afterwards to the spirit the French brought to the occasion.

"It was good to see two teams wanting to play attacking football," noted All Blacks coach Graham Henry afterwards. "There's been some pretty boring stuff over the last year in rugby, so it was just great to get two teams wanting to attack. I thought that was pretty special."

Backs coach Steve Hansen echoed Henry's point.

"We've got to acknowledge the fact the French wanted to play rugby. When you get two teams that want to play, then the game opens up a little bit," he said.

Henry also spoke of the All Blacks' sadness over the death of injured hooker Keven Mealamu's niece after an accident at a touch tournament.

"Luke Mealamu, Keven's older brother, lost a six-year-old daughter in a bad accident when she was crushed by a scrum machine," said Henry as part of a long opening statement at the post-match press conference.

"Now, I can't understand how that happened, but we sent our condolences to Luke and his family, our thoughts are with them and there are no words that you can really pass on, other than we're thinking of them."

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