Ireland prop Andrew Porter has escaped further punishment for his yellow card against the All Blacks at Wellington, despite leaving Brodie Retallick with a fractured cheekbone.
In the second half of Ireland's 32-22 series-deciding victory on Saturday, Porter was shown a yellow card by referee Wayne Barnes, after a head clash in a tackle with the All Blacks lock.
The yellow card was inconsistent with the All Blacks loss at Dunedin, where prop Angus Ta'avao was shown a straight red card for a head clash with Ireland centre Garry Ringrose and given a three-week suspension.
In Ta'avao's case, the prop faced a six-week suspension, but was saved by his previously clean record at the World Rugby judiciary.
While Porter was cited for the incident, an independent committee has endorsed Barnes' ruling that it did not meet the threshold for a red card.
"The player admitted that he committed an act of foul play, but maintained that the red card threshold had not been met and that the yellow card issued at the time by the match officials was correct in the circumstances," World Rugby said.
"Having considered all the evidence, the independent committee applied World Rugby's head contact process and agreed with the match officials' on-field decision that the player's act of foul play for a breach of law 9.13 did not meet the red card threshold, due to the absorbing nature of the tackle.
"On that basis, the independent committee deemed the act of foul play did not merit further sanction and the citing complaint was dismissed."
Retallick's injury is expected to keep him sidelined for up to two months, including the All Blacks' Rugby Championship campaign, which includes a two-test trip to South Africa.
