Giteau should have been suspended
I have said it before, here, here, here, and here, the SANZAR/International Citing procedure is a complete toss up at the moment!
It is disgraceful that South Africa faced disciplinary action in Dublin yesterday for their “armband protest”, for the exact reason that they are always receiving the short end of the stick when it comes to disciplinary action, and nothing ever gets done when they go through the correct channels to express their grievances about it.
Yet another example of how biased the process is was shown with the fact that Matt Giteau wasn’t even cited for his outrageous, malicious charge on Fourie Du Preez. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not in any way attacking Matt Giteau as a player, in-fact I like him and I don’t think that he is that type of player at all. He even appologised to Du Preez before leaving the field. He did however transgress the rules, he maliciously charged into Fourie Du Preez, elbow first, while making no attempt whatsoever to even look at the ball, and needs to answer for his actions. I have seen players receive red cards for less, and whilst I don’t think it was worthy of a red card, I do think he should have been cited and received at least a 3 week ban.
John Smit received a 6 week ban for running into a played elbow first, whilst carrying the ball. Yes the player fractured his larynx, but citings should have nothing to do with whether a player is injured or not. It should reflect the malicious act, whether or not a player is injured in the process, but highlight on the fact that such an act can cause serious injury.
I previously listed transgressions that occured over the past year, here is a re-cap:
SANZAR Judicial Citing ‘fails’ over the last year:
- Brad Thorn upends John Smit in an incident that could result in a serious neck injury, subsequently ending Smit’s Tri Nations. Thorn doesn’t even get as much as a yellow card, and is later suspended for a measly 1 week
- Bismark Du Plessis rolls his knuckles over the ‘facial area’ of a player, not making contact with the eyes and receives a 3 week ban
- Bakkies Botha receives a 5 week ban, reduced to 3 weeks for what wasn’t much more than a shove on Phil Waugh.
- Rory Kockott receives a red card, and a 1 week ban for striking a player with an open hand. (It was wrong and silly of him, but Adam Thompson should also find out when he can collect his Oscar for the show he put on)
- Sione Luaki almost decapitates Bryan Habana, then gets off on a technicality.
- Brett Sheehan blatantly and maliciously shoulder smashes Brad Barrit, causing concussion. Barrit has to be helped from the field, Sheehan gets off scott-free.
- Scott Staniforth pastes Tiaan Liebenberg, a punch-up ensues, Liebenberg is sent from the field, Staniforth isn’t cited.
- Tewis De Bruin upends Akone Ndungane in a tackle, receives a 3 week suspension.
- Bakkies Botha is suspended for 2 weeks for a text book clearance due to the fact that Adam Jones was injured.
- Brian ‘O Driscoll wasn’t even cited for flying in, from an offside position, with a swinging-arm, head high tackle on Dannie Rossouw, concussing Rossouw.
- Andrew Sheridan maliciously makes contact with the groin area of Andries Bekker. No citing occurred. (personally I didn’t think there was much in it, but Bakkies would have been cited had he been the transgressor)
- Ronan O’Gara makes no attempt to go for the ball in tackling Fourie Du Preez in the air, causing Du Preez to spin around, falling dangerously to the ground. No citing takes place.
- Schalk Burger is suspended for 8 weeks for acts contrary to good sportsmanship for making contact with the eye area of Luke Fitzgerald.
- Matt Giteau makes no attempt to go for the ball, or even look at it, whilst flying, elbow 1st into Fourie Du Preez, injuring him. No citing takes place.
Does ANYONE see a pattern here?
Had Bakkies Botha, Schalk Burger, Bismark Du Plessis, Butch James, or any other Springbok been the transgressor this weekend, a citing, and subsequent suspension would have taken place.
Why is it that every time a Springbok player is cited, he will be suspended? Whilst an All Black or Wallaby player is hardly ever cited, let alone suspended.
Enough is enough, things have gone too far and something has to be done about it!
I am currently trying to get hold of the footage for you.
What are your thoughts on the matter?
I couldn’t agree more – absolutely crazy stuff. Giteau’s hit was malicious and could have caused a LOT of damage and he isn’t even called in. I honestly think that you are right that there are double standards, although actions like those of Schalk don’t exactly help the boks.
Great blog. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the current game plan of the boks with all the kicks and no action for the backs. Personally I think it’s great that we’re winning, but the game is looking more and more like Ozzie rules.
@ Dan. I agree dude, but I guess the thinking is that winning games is priorirty. With pace makers like habana to chase kicks on the wing and our ability to put pressure on the other teams by making them play in there half results in numerous penalities that results into 3 points 95% of the time (with Morne Steyn record). After the Aussies scored in the 1st 2 min, we were back on top 9-7 by the 15th min, just from putting them under pressure in there half. I agree, it is not the prettiest of games, but no one can deny that with our strong points (great kickers, ball fetchers and chasers) that this game play is a well oilled machine to win games.
@Francois and Dan, Pienaar plays a prettier game, but at the same time a win is a win.The Aussies chose to play the high penalty risk, spoiling game. So I guess we can look at it as the Springboks playing the game plan that they did to punish the Aussies lack of discipline. If the roll were reversed, the Aussies wouldn’t be complaining. They would be claiming a good win. We might not be scoring tries, which does kind of worry me, but the oppostion are also spoiling everytime we get in the strike zone, which is going to keep costing them dearly untill they stop and we have a fair chance of scoring those well structured backline tries that we are capable of. A few players, eg, JDV need to look at offloading in the tackle (like he used to), as he seems to wrap the ball up (for the opposition to clearly read) and go into contact everytime he touches it lately. Thanks for the support. Keep it up.
What do you think they can do to play a more entertaining game and keep winning?
[...] David Gray, failed to cite Matt Giteau for his malicious charge on Fourie Du Preez. I stated before that I don’t in anyway think that Giteau is a dirty player, he isn’t. He even apologised [...]
[...] As far as I’m concerned, the only people guilty of bringing the “Game of Rugby” into disrepute are the IRB themselves for not acting on the countless complaints to rectify the injustices of the so blatantly biased citing a judiciary systems. I’m beginning to sound like a stuck record, complaining about how the IRB’s citing process keeps FAIL-ing us. [...]
As a Saffer, all we want is fairness.
Jacques Fourie now gets 4 (read that again you IRB … kers) 4 week ban for less action than Brad Thorne on John Smit. Where is the bloody fairness.
I suppose the IRB (Inconsistent Rugby Boo’s) always guns for the Number 1 team in world. What a lemon for them to suck on. Number 1 in the world. Hey, IRB read that again, NUMBER ONE TEAM IN THE WORLD.
Maybe it’s time for another Rugby Board to oversee the game of Rugby. I will wholly support a change in control.
[...] in the above footage. In a year that has been riddled with erratic (at best) judicial processes, here, here, here (and the list goes on), it will be interesting to see what comes of this latest [...]