Queensland Reds star Harry Wilson has blasted referee Brendon Pickerill for his “disrespectful” therapy of teammate Connor Vest after he suffered a fractured neck final Friday in Dunedin.
Wilson additionally lashed out on the lack of motion in opposition to the Highlanders for the deal with that resulted in Vest struggling a fracture of his C7 vertebrae.
Vest was despatched straight to hospital after an incident within the Reds’ 35-30 loss to the Highlanders and, after preliminary considerations, was allowed to fly again to Queensland on Sunday for extra therapy.
But after no motion was taken for what Wilson claimed was a “no-arms” deal with that resulted within the fracture, he was scathing of the referee after Vest walked from the sector.
“Rugby has really been big on player welfare and for us there wasn’t much player welfare there with a no-arms tackle to the head. Vesty broke his neck and for me that’s pretty ridiculous,” Wilson stated on Monday.
“On top of that as a playing group we were very frustrated with the referee trying to rush him off the field. We thought that was pretty disrespectful for a player who has just broken his neck, trying to rush him off the field as if he’s wasting time.
“That’s why he walked off the field so quickly. He was on the ground for a long time and they had him in all the positions and the external pressure form the ref forced him to walk off. You don’t know what sort of extra damage that could do to someone with a broken neck.”
Wilson stated a number of Reds gamers went straight to the hospital after the sport to verify on Vest, involved about what his household again in Australia was going by means of.
But the news Vest has prevented surgical procedure was welcome.
“On Friday night we were’t sure,” Wilson stated.
“This is a great thing for him and his family, I know how worried they were, being in another country on a hospital bed in not a good way.”
The Reds need to beat the Fijian Drua to make the Super Rugby Pacific finals and might be with out co-captain Liam Wright, who dislocated his shoulder in opposition to the Highlanders.
“You don’t want to have it any other way. We badly want to play finals footy,” Wilson stated.
“There’s no bigger challenge and no better way to show our fight.”
Source: www.foxsports.com.au