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ACT Brumbies see red after SANZAAR concede possible blunder in Melbourne Rebels loss

Eamonn Tiernan
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The ACT Brumbies will be seeing red after SANZAAR conceded Melbourne Rebels Lopeti Timani flanker could have been sent off on Saturday night.

Timani was yellow-carded in the 16th minute when his knee made contact with the head of Brumbies lock Rory Arnold.

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The Rebels have put a horrid week off the field to the back of their minds, claiming a 19-17 win over the Brumbies in Melbourne.

Brumbies coach Stephen Larkham said after the match he believed the incident warranted a red card and on Sunday morning the SANZAAR citing commissioner agreed.

Timani, 26, was cited and referred to the foul play review committee with the Tongan-born Wallaby suspended for four weeks on Sunday night.

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"Lopeti Timani is alleged to have contravened Law 10.4(c) Kicking an Opponent during the match between the Rebels and Brumbies at AAMI Park in Melbourne on 15 April 2017," the statement read.

"Upon further review of the match footage, the Citing Commissioner deemed in his opinion the incident had met the red card threshold for foul play."

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It appears referee Glen Jackson spared the Rebels scavenger a straight red because he didn't make clean contact with Arnold's head.

"I'll give it to you that you've only grazed his head but it's still intent, so for that it's just a yellow card," Jackson said on Saturday night.

Timani was the second Rebels player sin-binned within 60 seconds as he joined Canberra product and former Brumby Colby Fainga'a on the sideline.

The Brumbies gained the ascendancy with the two-man advantage and scored three minutes later through Australia's form winger Henry Speight.

Despite a third yellow card in the second half to Fereti Sa'aga, the Brumbies could not deny a fast-finishing Rebels.

In the 78th minute fullback Reece Hodge gave the Rebels a lead they would not relinquish as the under-seige Melbourne club closed out the match 19-17 and secured its first win of the season.

Larkham disagreed with suggestions that Timani returning to the field denied the Brumbies victory, stating it was missed chances which cost his side.

"We certainly had opportunities, not just when they had 13 guys on the park or 14 guys on the park, I think we had opportunities when they had their full complement out there but we failed to capitalise on those," Larkham said.

The loss brought an end to the Brumbies 10-match winning streak in the Australian conference and they now face defending champions the Wellington Hurricanes in New Zealand.

The Hurricanes have the competition's second most yellow cards with seven, while the Brumbies have three after eight rounds.

Rebels No.8 Amanaki Mafi was lucky to escape sanction from the citing commissioner after he appeared to make contact with Scott Sio's eyes during a scrap in the second half.

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