The Sanzar judicial officer Jannie Lubbe has accepted a guilty plea from Butch James of the Sharks for a dangerous tackle on Bulls’ Jurgen Visser, after he was cited during Saturday’s Super Rugby against the two teams.
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Lubbe has subsequently suspended James from all forms of the game for four weeks.
The incident occurred in the 72nd minute of the match, for which James was sent to the sin-bin for the remainder of the match by referee Jason Jaftha.
In a statement released by Sanzar, Lubbe ruled the following:
“After careful consideration was given to the video evidence of the incident, the citing report, the report of the referee, the previous disciplinary record of the player and his playing commitments in the future.
“A teleconference was held where his representative Mr Rudolf Straeuli of the Sharks made submissions on behalf of the player.
“The Sharks team manager, Trevor Barnes was also in attendance on the call.
“Lubbe determined that the player should be suspended for a period of four weeks from 6 July up to and including 4 August 2013.
“The sanction was offered to the player who accepted the proposed sanction.
“The player was accordingly suspended from all rugby from 6 July to 4 August 2013.”
Wilhelm Steenkamp
The date has been set for Bulls lock, WilhelmSteenkamp’s Sanzar judicial hearing for allegedly headbutting Sharks flyhalf Butch James during their Super Rugby match at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria.
In a statement released by Sanzar, judicial officer, Jannie Lubbe deemed it necessary for Steenkamp to appear at the hearing.
“Following initial consideration by the SANZAR Duty Judicial Officer Jannie Lubbe SC, Wilhelm Steenkamp of the Bulls will appear at a SANZAR Judicial Hearing after being cited for alleged foul play during a Super Rugby match at the weekend.
“Steenkamp is alleged to have contravened Law 10.4 (a) – punching or Ssriking when he made contact with Sharks flyhalf Butch James at a ruck with his head.”
The incident occurred in the 63rd minute of the match and went unpunished by referee, Jason Japhta.
Sanzar’s Mike Heron will oversee the hearing, which will be held via a video conference at 09:00 (CAT) on July 8.
Ok, that yellow card was appropriate as Butch had no further part in the game after that. But if the foul warranted such a harsh measure as a sending off, surely Japhta should still have given the penalty to the Bulls at the kick off.