Yep, this is pretty bad alright. Stupid stuff from Franks. I'll be very surprised if he doesn't get cited and suspended.
To be fair though, the Wallabies did put in a lot of dirty, off the ball stuff themselves. IMO, Cheika sent his players into this game with a plan to disrupt NZ possession as much as possible and not worry if they did so illegally. This was intended to spoil the flow of the game as much as they could in order to limit the damage on the scoreline.
As for Coleman, he looked like he had the red mist right from the kickoff; he was a "Yellow Card Walking" right from the outset. I reckon Cheika sent him out with "instructions"; don't worry about discipline and don't worry if you get carded, just do some damage. It was no surprise to me when he finally pulled out that stupid late, high shoulder charge on Ben Smith and got binned. Could have been red card if it had been any higher.
As for the Dane Coles so called swinging arm, that was nothing. Kaino bore the brunt of the strike, Fardy a copped a glancing blow at best. My question is, why was Fardy allowed to cheat and lie over the ball, making no attempt to roll away. If Poite does his job and pings Fardy, none of this happens. I wouldn't put any store in what Fitzpatrick says (I haven't done so for some years now). He's gone to the Dark Side, his paymasters are British TV, so he'll tell them what they want to hear.
