Aussies try to justify assault

{TEXT} Anger within the Lions' camp over Duncan McRae's punches and the general Australian reaction won't have subsided on seeing a screening of the game again yesterday.

"I think we know who the winner was," quipped one of the Fox TV's hilarious commentary team as Ronan O'Gara was led off with blood pouring from below his left eye, then came a shout of "oh no" as Stuart Dickinson advocated McRae's dismissal to referee Scott Young. "Stuart Dickinson you've had a shocker."

Not even a close-up, slomo replay of McRae's estimated 11 punches swayed the commentary team. Former Wallabies Greg Martin and Phil Kearns duly weighed in with their tuppenceworth. "I don't know what provoked Duncan McRae there," and "you don't do that without being provoked to start with." It was a common enough theme. In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. Enter Bob Dwyer.

At Saturday's post-match press conference he had begun: "Duncan McRae has apologised. He certainly did throw a few punches but he does say he retaliated after what he felt was a swinging arm in the clean-out. Unfortunately you can only see his (O'Gara's) arm swing forward, and Duncan took offence to what he thought was a boot being lashed out. But he has apologised." Oh well, that's okay then.

The spin doctors must have been quick into the Waratahs dressing-room too. Dwyer revealed his boys in blue had been "the second least penalised team in the Super 12", while he and captain Phil Waugh repeatedly cited the 60 yellow cards in this season's Super 12, of which New South Wales had received only two, one of which was for punching.

Dwyer also claimed that the game's first punch had been thrown by Danny Grewcock after 30 seconds, and "the first penalised punch was thrown by Phil Vickery", conveniently ignoring that Tim Bowman had elbowed Grewcock literally from the kick-off to earn the game's first yellow card.

Just before they bounded out of the press-room, their haloes unmoved and pristine white, Dywer relented a little and said: "there is some validity in what he (McRae) says, but it doesn't really matter. Using that as an excuse is without any doubt unacceptable." Hallelulah.