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SA Rugby won't appeal Rassie Erasmus suspension
By Ian Cameron
SA Rugby are highly unlikely to appeal Springboks director Rassie Erasmus two-match ban that was handed down by World Rugby on Thursday.
World Rugby has issued the sanction that prevents Erasmus from taking part in today's clash with Italy and the climax to the Springboks’ European tour against England a week later.
The ban includes engagement with media and social media in relation to match officials and comes a year after he was forced to miss South Africa’s defeat at Twickenham for similar reasons.
World Rugby acted after Erasmus published a series of sarcastic tweets during the Autumn Nations Series, airing his grievances over officiating on social media rather than through the established channels.
RugbyPass understands that SA Rugby will not be appealing the ban. Erasmus was banned from all rugby activity for two months for his behaviour towards officials during the Lions’ tour to South Africa in 2021 and was also suspended from matchday involvement until October this year. The latest ban comes nearly exactly a year since SA Rugby withdraw an appeal of that suspension.
“Match officials are the backbone of the sport and without them there is no game,” a World Rugby statement read.
“World Rugby condemns any public criticism of match official selection, performance or integrity, which undermines their role, the trust-based coach/match officials feedback process and the values of integrity, respect, solidarity and discipline that are at the heart of the sport.
“The behaviour of coaching staff and match officials are widely observed by fans, media and participants at every level, and such behaviours affect how the values are applied across the game.
“Having considered the matter World Rugby has issued a two-match ban against Rassie Erasmus.”
The Springboks boss’ recent tweets, in which he highlights French transgressions while stating they are lessons for his team, have been condemned by former referee Nigel Owens.
additional reporting PA
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Stephen Larkham, Mick Byrne, Scott Wisental, Ben Mowen, Les Kiss, Jim McKay, Rod Kafer.
There are plenty of great Australian coaches who could do a better job than Schmidt.
Go to commentsThis piece is nothing more than the result of revisionist fancy of Northern Hemisphere rugby fans. Seeing what they want to see, helped but some surprisingly good results and a desire to get excited about doing something well.
I went back through the 6N highlights and sure enough in every English win I remembered seeing these exact holes on the inside, that are supposedly the fallout out of a Felix Jones system breaking down in the hands of some replacement. Every time the commentators mentioned England being targeted up the seam/around the ruck or whatever. Each game had a try scored on the inside of the blitz, no doubt it was a theme throughout all of their games. Will Jordan specifically says that Holland had design that move to target space he saw during their home series win.
Well I'm here to tell you they were the same holes in a Felix Jones system being built as well. This woe is now sentiment has got to stop. The game is on a high, these games have been fantastic! It is Englands attack that has seen their stocks increase this year, and no doubt that is what SB told him was the teams priority. Or it's simply science, with Englands elite players having worked towards a new player welfare and management system, as part of new partnership with the ERU, that's dictating what the players can and can't put their bodies through.
The only bit of truth in this article is that Felix is not there to work on fixing his defence. England threw away another good chance of winning in the weekend when they froze all enterprise under pressure when no longer playing attacking footy for the second half. That mindset helped (or not helped if you like) of course by all this knee jerk, red brained criticism.
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