Ethan Hooker injury sparks outrage as Luke Morgan defends controversial incident

Hooker is facing an extended spell out after dislocating his shoulder when Morgan followed through with a dive on the try-scorer during Saturday night's 21-17 URC loss in Swansea.

The incident prompted a rare rebuke from coach JP Pietersen, who called out Morgan's actions publicly in the wake of the defeat.

"Ethan's injury was a massive blow for us," said Pietersen. "After scoring a try, the rules say you are not supposed to dive on a player. The rules are there to protect players and sadly that did not happen.

"He dislocated his shoulder. He is a massive presence for us and to lose him after the first half was very disappointing and frustrating."

Unsurprisingly, Morgan has been copping a lot of stick on social media from South African fans, who are outraged that he escaped sanction for the reckless act - but the winger insists he did nothing wrong and has remained defiant.

In a comment on Morgan's post-match Instagram post, a user named pdf7777 wrote: "Falling on a player after he was clearly going to score is pure filth. Intended to hurt and succeed. Congrats."

To which Morgan replied: "He clearly hasn't scored until the ball is grounded, there for [therefore] because the ball wasn't grounded means the ball is still in play and I am fully legal to make that tackle so you might want to think again about that one."

Another user named chrisvdm01 wrote: "You should be banned for as long as Ethan Hooker is out. Scumbag."

Morgan replied: "And you should go bore someone else with a silly little comment like that."

The Ospreys player eventually deleted his explanation of why the tackle was legal but it did not go unnoticed.

Hooker faces a lengthy spell on the sidelines, which could severely dent his chances of breaking into the Springbok setup this season.

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