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Van der Merwe picks up ban for fist fight with Springbok rival
By Online Editors
Blues winger Tanielu Tele'a has been suspended for four weeks of Super Rugby, and Sharks hooker Akker van der Merwe for three after governing body SANZAAR announced sanctions handed down by their Foul Play Review Committee.
Tele'a pleaded guilty to a charge of tackling a player off the ground after he was red-carded during his Auckland side's 24-9 victory for crashing into airborne Stormers' winger Dillyn Leyds.
The committee found that the act warranted a suspension of eight weeks, but cut that in half due to his guilty plea and the player's good judicial record.
Van der Merwe was involved in a fist fight with rival Bulls' hooker Schalk Brits, for which both players were red-carded in the Pretoria-based side's 19-16 victory on Saturday.
He pleaded guilty to the offence, which saw the usual six-week sanction cut in half.
Brits has also been charge by the Foul Play Review Committee, but no verdict has yet been reached in his case.
Van der Merwe and Brits are likely rivals for one spot in the South Africa squad for the World Cup in Japan later in the year, with Malcolm Marx and Bongi Mbonambi ahead of them in the pecking order.
AAP
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Latest Comments
I like Andy’s critical approach to all hot issues especially when it comes to the rugby big “bosses”. However, sorry Andy, I don’t support your “we shouldn’t be questioning the integrity of Karl Dickson or any other official”. May I ask why? They do have a lot of responsibility, but they are people like us with all their sins and weaknesses. We have to respect their decision during the games, but why they became untouchable afterwards and people cannot even criticize them and the ones, who does express their concerns, got punished for publicly analyzing their mistakes and asking questions. If they believe they did right, there shouldn’t be a problem for any of the refs to answer these “questions” publicly. I don’t really remember such cases. However, I do remember how Craig Joubert shown his running skills in 2015 or Pascal Gauzere shined in Cardiff in 2021. I do believe that Rassie, as anybody else, had a full right to share his vision of Nic Berry’s performance the same year. I do not support the hate in any form especially in public one, but creating the cast of untouchable refs and rugby bosses is not for me. As for Karl, he had all means to question his appointment for the game and since I don’t now whether he did it, blaming just RFU wouldn’t be quite correct at this moment. I love the game of rugby and almost every time I watch it I don’t support any team, I just wanna see the good game and fair referring. Sorry, Karl. last Saturday you got my Craig Joubert”s award of the round. It is up to Karl to prove that I am wrong, not to Andy or RFU’s corporate bla-bla-bla. Something like that…
Go to commentswell remember the blues had a guy called jed rowlands for a season. remember scott took his coaching team with him give him time
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