Monday 29 August 2016 10:30, UK
All Blacks prop Owen Franks has been cleared of any wrongdoing, after video footage appeared to show the All Blacks' forward commit an eye gouging offence during Saturday's Rugby Championship win over Australia in Wellington.
However, the SANZAAR citing commissioner responsible for reviewing the match found that the New Zealand prop had 'no case to answer', after viewing the incident from a number of angles.
Footage aired on social media seemed to show Franks rake his fingers across the face of Wallabies lock Kane Douglas during a maul early in the contest, which the Kiwis went on to win 29-9.
Steve Hansen, the All Blacks coach, said on Sunday they had not been told of any citings from the match, while the tournament's governing body SANZAAR confirmed in an email that no action had been taken against any player.
Hansen said he agreed with the decision, especially given the disciplinary process involved examining footage from multiple camera angles. Footage on social media had shown the incident from just one angle.
I agree with the independent person that there is nothing to answer for.
Hansen said: "I have seen the footage and I agree with the independent person that there is nothing to answer for.
"You have to be really careful until you see all the views. Social media were the people who alerted everyone to it and they certainly don't get all the views, so you need to be careful.
"There is a process and that process has been followed and whoever the citing commissioner was has seen all the angles and believes there is nothing to answer for.
"If there's no case to answer, there's no case to answer."
After the match, Australia coach Michael Cheika had said he expected Franks to face some punishment.
He pointed out: "We saw it at the time. I'm sure the match review (officer) will pick that up. It was pretty open, it would be pretty hard for the match review guy to miss."
