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Dunning to face judiciary after Force debut dismissal
- Adrian Warren
- From: AAP
- January 24, 2010 2:10PM
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Wallabies prop Matt Dunning will face a judiciary for allegedly throwing a punch in the Western Force's pre-season loss to the Stormers in Cape Town. Picture: Mark Evans Source: The Daily Telegraph
WALLABIES prop Matt Dunning was sent off during his brief debut for the Western Force, as the Australian team was handed a 54-12 drubbing by South Africa's Stormers in a pre-season rugby trial in Cape Town.
Dunning will front a judiciary on Monday after he was dismissed late in the game after allegedly throwing a punch.
Stormers forward Jacques Potgieter was also sent off after he allegedly ran in to attack Dunning.
The veteran Wallaby prop, who has made an off-season switch from the Waratahs, played just a few minutes after coming on as a second half replacement.
Force coach John Mitchell seemed relatively unconcerned by the incident.
"The situation will be dealt with properly and as I understand it, the incident was quite minor,'' Mitchell said.
The Stormers scored seven tries to two and led 41-0 at half time.
The lop-sided first half scoreline reflected the fact that Mitchell opted to start the match with seven debutantes, while the Stormers unleashed plenty of their heavy artillery from the beginning.
Their major off-season recruits, Springbok backs Jacques Fourie and Brian Habana each started the match.
A reflection of the seriousness with which the Stormers took the fixture was that they opted to kick for goal with a 51-12 lead in the final minute.
Until that late penalty, the Force had outscored the Stormers in the second half following tries to youngsters Joelin Rapana and Mark Swanepoel.
Mitchell injected a number of his Wallabies from the hour mark onwards.
Captain and lock Nathan Sharpe and winger Cameron Shepherd each returned from off season surgery, while their fellow Wallabies James O'Connor, Ryan Cross and David Pocock all got a late run.
"By the looks of it the Stormers fielded their number one side straight up and it's not always a bad thing coming out of trial matches knowing where you need to improve,'' Sharpe said.
Mitchell suggested his Wallabies contingent would get more playtime in the second and final match of the Tri-Series competition against the Sharks in Cape Town on Tuesday.
"We want to come out of South Africa with every player having 80 minutes under their belt before we go into our third (and final) trial,'' Mitchell said.
The New Zealander believed his young players had taken something out of the game despite the heavy defeat.
"We wanted our players to be under no illusions, certainly our new players, our young players, of what Super 14 takes,'' Mitchell said.
"The reality is they've had great learning during that situation.
"Clearly in that first quarter we were undone by kick receipt, second quarter we were undone by general play maul and line-out maul, so that kind of thing you can fix.
"Second half it was a much more even contest.''
http://www.perthnow.com.au/sport/dun...-1225823010709
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