Arendse cops ban for incident that saw Barrett land on his head
Springboks wing Kurt-Lee Arendse has been hit with a four-week ban for his horror air collision with Beauden Barrett during the Rugby Championship opener with New Zealand at the weekend.
Arendse pleaded guilty to the SANZAAR charge relating to the misjudged tackle that saw All Blacks flyhalf Barrett land on his head at Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit.
Arendse contravened Law 9.17: A player must not tackle, charge, pull, push or grasp an opponent whose feet are off the ground. He red carded in 74th minute for the incident and has now been suspended from all forms of the game up to and including 17 September 2022.
All Blacks head coach Ian Foster and scrumhalf Aaron Smith were irate following the game.
"Our ability to diffuse their bombs is something that we need to fix, but their tactics there are a little bit borderline," Smith said. "To see Beauden Barrett do a full flip is pretty scary. That is a part of the game that needs to be looked at a little bit. We have to do better to protect our jumpers."
Foster was also spitting after the incident.
"We're going to have a look at them chucking bodies in the air, we were pretty frustrated with that," said the 57-year-old. "The one in the first half we weren't very happy with, and certainly the last one, was very dangerous.
"But that's part of the game we've got to sort out. If they're going to just chuck bodies up, and just throw people up in the air, it's a very hard thing to deal with. That's the game. We missed one and they scored, and that got them the early momentum."
In his finding, Foul Play Review Committee Chairman Michael Heron QC ruled the following:
"Having conducted a detailed review of all the available evidence, including all camera angles and additional evidence, including from the player and submissions from his legal representative, Attie Heyns, the Foul Play Review Committee upheld the red card under Law 9.17."
"With respect to sanction the Foul Play Review Committee considered the act of foul play was reckless, highly dangerous and had a considerable impact on the victim player. The Committee accepted it was not deliberate and after considering all relevant factors decided the foul play merited a mid-range entry point of 8 weeks. However, taking into account mitigating factors including the Player's clean judicial record and his acceptance of guilt at the first available opportunity, the Foul Play Review Committee reduced the suspension to 4 weeks."
"The player is therefore suspended for 4 weeks, up to and including 17 September 2022.”
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I’m all for speeding up the game. But can we be certain that the slowness of the game contributed to fans walking out? I’m not so sure. Super rugby largely suffered from most fans only being able to, really, follow the games played in their own time zone. So at least a third of the fan base wasn’t engaged at any point in time. Second, New Zealand teams always winning. It’s like formula one. When one team dominates, people lose interest. After COVID, with SA leaving and Australia dipping in form, SR became an even greater one horse race. But surely if we believe that shaving seconds off lost time events in rugby is going to draw fans back, we should be shown some figures that supports this idea before we draw any major conclusions. Where are the stats that shows these changes have made that sort of impact? Does a rugby “fan” who lost interest because of ball in play time suddenly have a revived interest because we’ve saved or brought back into play a matter of seconds or a few minutes each game? I doubt it. I don’t thinks it’s even a noticeable difference to be impactful. The 20 min red card idea. Agreed. Let’s give it a go. But I think it’s fairer that the player sent off is substituted and plays no further part in the game as a consequence.
Go to commentsThose are pretty good draws for the two top Aussie teams. I certainly wouldn't want my Chiefs to have a quarter final in Brisbane. None of the top teams will want the Crusaders.
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