{"id":179057,"date":"2025-09-30T03:18:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T03:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/179057\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T03:18:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T03:18:08","slug":"waratahs-star-matt-philip-cleared-to-play-in-super-rugby-aus-final-after-suspension-reduction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/179057\/","title":{"rendered":"Waratahs star Matt Philip cleared to play in Super Rugby AUS Final after suspension reduction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"css-2425b0\">The NSW Waratahs&#8217; quest to take out the inaugural Super Rugby AUS title has been given a massive boost with Wallaby lock Matt Philip cleared to play against the Western Force on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">Philip was cited out of their opening round defeat to the Force in Sydney after collecting centre Boston Fakafauna high.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/rugbycomau\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"css-tm001h\">Watch every second of Super Rugby AUS live and on-demand via the Rugby.com.au YouTube channel.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">The incident happened in the first half, with the experienced lock hitting the former Australia U20s star high while he was on the ground, being put into touch.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">The former Rebel was initially handed a three-match ban for his actions, which would&#8217;ve ruled him out of the decider.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">However, Philip has been approved to complete World Rugby&#8217;s Coaching Intervention Programme, allowing the ban to be reduced by a week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">The 31-year-old skippered the Waratahs in their opening round defeat, with centre Lawson Creighton taking the reins as skipper in previous weeks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">Phillip made his debut for the club during the British &amp; Irish Lions, also suiting up for AUNZ after returning from Japanese Rugby.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">The NSW side stormed into the Final after back-to-back victories against the Queensland Reds and ACT Brumbies, including a bonus-point win over the Reds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">This ensured their place in the Final despite the Reds&#8217; win over the Western Force, with head-to-head record the deciding factor if teams are tied on points.<\/p>\n<p>As for the Force, they locked in hosting rights at Wanneroo after bonus points wins over the Waratahs and Brumbies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">It&#8217;ll cap off a big weekend in the west, with the second Bledisloe Cup to be held at Optus Stadium on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">The two teams will confirm their sides for the Final on Wednesday, with Ben Donaldson among the likely big names for the Force.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NSW Waratahs&#8217; quest to take out the inaugural Super Rugby AUS title has been given a massive&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179058,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,32951,760,85,69535],"class_list":["post-179057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nsw-waratahs","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-super-rugby-aus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}