Mitchell takes no risks on Giteau

By Wayne Smith
April 14, 2008 SEEING Elton Flatley's career cut short by repeated concussions has convinced Western Force coach John Mitchell to take no chances with Matt Giteau after his playmaker's sickening head knock against New South Wales on Saturday.

Giteau was knocked out when he got his head in the wrong position attempting a front-on tackle on Sam Norton-Knight at Subiaco Oval and has rival NSW winger Lote Tuqiri to thank for ensuring things did not get worse from there.

Tuqiri saw his Australia teammate lying motionless on the field and rushed to his aid, rolling him into the recovery position before rejoining the Waratahs attack.

Giteau, who was taken from the ground on the medi-vac with his neck in a protective brace, seemingly suffered no serious injury and was able to thank Tuqiri when the man of the match visited the Force dressing room after the game.

"It was a good thing to do and I would like to think I would do the same thing for him," Giteau said.

"I feel fine. It does not feel like there is anything wrong at all. I remember everything from the game, so it feels like nothing has happened."

But this is the third head knock Giteau has sustained this season. Mitchell was concerned not just by the precedent of Flatley being forced into premature retirement in 2006 after repeated head knocks affected his vision but also from seeing New Zealand players Richie McCaw, Leon MacDonald and Steve Devine affected to varying degrees by concussion. So Mitchell has ruled his five-eighth out of Friday's match against Queensland at Suncorp Stadium.

"We need to manage his welfare," Mitchell said. "The last thing we want is to risk his future. I know he was pretty keen to play but I'd love for him to buy into the fact that this is for his own good."

Giteau, who will have concussion tests before consulting a specialist on Wednesday, has bowed gracefully to the inevitable. "I am just very disappointed that I missed out on most of the (NSW) game and I will miss next week's game because these are the games you want to play."

Mitchell has bowed no less gracefully to the outcome of the Waratahs match, a 12-17 defeat for his side, but he is perturbed that referee Brett Bowden did not refer Force's late flurry of raids on the NSW tryline to the television match official.

Bowden reportedly told Perth officials after the match he was on the point of awarding what would have been the winning try to the Force right at the death only to realise that the ball carrier had stopped an inch short of grounding the ball against the base of the goalposts.

But Force captain Nathan Sharpe, in his immediate post-match interview, suggested his side had actually scored amid the tangle of bodies, only for it to be missed in all the carnage.

Mitchell, too, was convinced the Force had, for the second week running, snatched victory in the last play of the game.

"Our guys thought they had the ball up against the post," he said.

Referees manager Peter Marshall said after reviewing a video of the Force's desperate last minutes that Bowden had been in good position throughout but admitted the referee could have allowed play to continue as he did and still have gone back to the video ref for a retrospective ruling after the stoppage that ended the match.

Bowden earned widespread praise for his handling of a ferocious match in which the Tahs were called on to make a massive 252 tackles although Mitchell was critical that his side only received three free kicks, a statistic he blamed on the latitude Bowden gave NSW "on the floor" at the tackle.

As a pointer to where Australian rugby is at, the match was one of the most encouraging of the season, with Mitchell believing that once the national selectors identify and develop two reliable tightheads and settle on a No.12, the Wallabies can quickly re-establish themselves as a world force.

"I like where we're heading," he said. "I'm aware other countries still don't respect us, but if I was them, I'd be extremely wary of Australia this year."


http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,...-23217,00.html