Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt has doubled-down on his critique of Saturday night’s controversial second Lions Test at the MCG, revealing that Carlo Tizzano – the man at the centre of the high-octane finish – suffered a “high-magnitude impact” as a result of the final breakdown incident.

Tizzano was slammed by corners of the world, particularly in the northern hemisphere, of playing for a penalty after grasping his head and diving backward from the last-ditched clean-out from Jac Morgan in the 80th minute of Saturday’s heartbreaking 29-26 defeat.

Former England back-rower James Haskell said the rising Wallabies on-baller deserved to be shown a red card for the incident.

“Only bit of foul play and nonsense in that incident was the Australian player diving,” Haskell said on The Good, the Bad and the Rugby podcast. “That should have been red-carded because that is utter crap.”

On Tuesday, World Rugby chief executive Alan Gilpin said an internal review had been conducted, but added that the findings would not be made public.

“We won’t talk publicly about that decision; the decision’s happened, the game’s finished and move on,” Gilpin told reporters in Sydney at a World Rugby event at the Museum of Contemporary Art that revealed the ticketing process for the 2027 World Cup.

“We’ll share and we do share with Joe and the coaching team why the match officials made that decision. Joe’s got a view about what was wrong with that decision making and there’ll be a debate between them about that, so that Joe and his players can go into the next Test understanding how that game’s going to be officiated.

“I think what we’ve seen in the past is it [making public comment] does explode because there’s always going to be, you know, regardless of what we say about the rights or wrongs of a particular decision, there will be one group who disagree and that’s what in the past has led to match officials being retargeted.”

World Rugby CEO Alan Gilpin speaks to the media during the Rugby World Cup 2027 Australia Ticketing Program at Museum of Contemporary Art on July 29, 2025. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe – World Rugby via Getty Images)

Gilpin added that he was “disappointed” that World Rugby’s push to make the game safer had been brought into question, including by Schmidt who had claimed the decision not to penalise Morgan went against the governing body’s charter.

“I think it’s disappointing when the reaction is one of this means player welfare is not taken seriously, because I think we’ve worked really, really hard on that narrative,” Gilpin said.

“Everyone knows we’re putting player welfare in its broadest sense at the top of the agenda.”

But after Tizzano’s teammates rallied around him earlier in the week, Schmidt revealed on Tuesday afternoon that the impact from the clean-out was in fact double the force of a usual breakdown incident.

“I just heard the end of it [Gilpin’s press conference] then because we’d just finished training, but talking about the instrumental mouthguards, with Carlo when he was hit, I feel sorry for him because I think he’s copping a lot of flak, but that impact was almost double what they determine as a high magnitude impact,” Schmidt told Morgan Turinui on Stan Sport’s Rugby Central prorgam.

“So that’s the degree of force that he had to wear I suppose, and that in itself is enough to force someone to recoil as he did. So those are some of the things that we get actual readings on.

“He’s had a pretty sore neck for the last 24-48 hours, but he’s back, he’s resilient, and he’s back looking forward to the weekend.”

Carlo Tizzano receives medical attention following his last-minute clean-out in the second Lions Test at the MCG. (Photo by Morgan Hancock/Getty Images)

The mouthguards were funded and rolled out by World Rugby over the past 12 months and made mandatory across the professional game.

Since then, players have been regularly removed from games to undergo Head Injury Assessments if data indicates high impacts. Tizzano, it is understood, underwent a HIA but did not record a concussion.

“The rotational force was just above the high magnitude threshold, as it’s termed, according to a study that was done in conjunction with World Rugby and the providers of the mouthguard,” Schmidt added.

“Just in terms of protecting Carlo, I think it’s probably [worth] getting the information out there that that level of force causes a chain reaction. That’s the equation.”

By conceding the last-minute try to Hugo Keenan, the Wallabies blew the biggest lead in more than a century after being up 23-5 after 30 minutes.

Schmidt said it was “frustrating” that they couldn’t close out the game and admitted the finish to the first half proved telling in the final outcome.

“I think the last ten minutes of the first half hurt us the most,” he said. “When you’ve built a 23-5 lead and that becomes 23-17 by half-time, the momentum is with the visitors.”

The Roar earlier on Wednesday revealed that Wallabies are expected to make several changes to their side for Saturday’s series finale, with Nic White to return to the No.9 jersey ahead of Jake Gordon.

Rob Valetini is also expected to be ruled out just days after Allan Alaalatoa left camp because of a shoulder injury.

Joe Schmidt speaks to his players following the second Lions Test at the MCG on July 26, 2025. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

Asked how the “walking wounded” were going, Schmidt said one of his biggest challenges was getting the Wallabies up mentally following last weekend’s devastating result.

“There’s a fair bit of walking wounded in terms of probably emotional damage,” said Schmidt. “There’s some real disappointment, deep-seated disappointment.

“I think it’s the only time in my coaching time that I’ve circled up the players on the field just because they looked forlorn out there. And so we’re trying to build our way back from that deep disappointment that was felt at the end of the game.

“I think we can get our spark back by the end of the week. And we know at the stadium, just across from us, we’ve got to get that back for this weekend.”