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Wiese citing dismissed: 'Situation wasn't a highly dangerous one'
By Liam Heagney
The Springboks will likely be annoyed that cited back-rower Jasper Wiese has been cleared and is now available to face the All Blacks less than five hours after Jacques Nienaber named a Wiese-less matchday 23 for next Saturday's Rugby Championship match in Townsville. Nienaber has questioned why there had been the delay of a day in the staging of the disciplinary hearing, which denied his player the opportunity to compete for selection.
Uncertain about the availability of Wiese, Nienaber decided to change the configuration of the Springboks bench for the upcoming round five Championship match, excluding the back-rower and including an extra sub back.
It means the South Africans will go into their 100th meeting with the All Blacks with a bomb squad of just five forwards and three backs rather than the six/two split that was pivotal in their run to World Cup glory and Lions series success.
During his Springboks team announcement media briefing, Nienaber has questioned why there was a delay in the staging of the Wiese hearing unlike what happened two weeks previously when All Blacks full-back Jordie Barrett was before the judiciary following his red card versus Australia.
That hearing was held on a Monday, freeing Barrett to contest selection for the following weekend's game versus Argentina. However, the delay of Wiese's hearing until Tuesday meant Nienaber had to press ahead with team selection plans minus his sub back-rower.
"I’m not 100 per cent sure why the timelines weren’t met (for the Springboks) and it was met when they had the same incident two weeks ago when Australia played against New Zealand. I’m sure Sanzaar will come back to us on that,” shrugged an aggrieved Nienaber who learned later on Tuesday night Australian time that Wiese's citing was dismissed.
A post-hearing statement from Sanzaar read: "A judicial committee hearing has found Jasper Wiese of South Africa not guilty of contravening law 9.12 after he was cited after a Rugby Championship match at the weekend. No further sanction has been imposed on Wiese and he is free to play.
"In his finding, judicial committee chair Michael Heron ruled: Having conducted a detailed review of all the available evidence, including all camera angles and additional evidence, including from the player, a medical report on the opposition player involved, and having considered the submissions from his legal representative, Attie Heyns, the judicial committee found that the player had not committed an act of foul play worthy of the red card threshold.
"The judicial committee reviewed the case in accordance with regulation 17.16.1 of World Rugby’s regulations and the World Rugby head contact process. The evidence and submissions on behalf of the player, together with surrounding circumstances, satisfied the committee that the citing commissioner was not correct to find there was a high degree of danger involved.
"Whilst the Australian player was vulnerable, the contact with the head was not intentional or highly reckless. Wiese was shown to be grabbing for the ball rather than targeting the head of the Australian player. The low force, modest speed, indirect contact and the turning motion used by Wiese, meant that the situation was not a highly dangerous one (when compared to the World Rugby examples).
"The Australian player was completely uninjured and his statement suggested the contact looked more serious than it was. There was no adverse reaction by any of the players to the conduct. The referee was in a very good position to see the actions of Wiese.
"For those reasons, the committee was satisfied that the referee (with the assistance of the TMO) was correct to award a yellow card in the circumstances. The committee reinforced that the citing commissioner was otherwise correct to find that this was foul play, and at least warranted a yellow card in the circumstances. Wiese is therefore free to play in the upcoming matches.”
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Latest Comments
Excellent points Mz. Because of other commitments I have just watched the game.
Interesting watching it after reading all the news reports especially in the English media. I was expecting to see a game that the ABs were very lucky to win. What I saw was a game that England showed their tactical incompetence and their inability to construct any try scoring opportunities.
They can go on deluding themselves that they were unlucky to lose ( as Borthwick said post match ) but until they stop relying on rush defence and goal kicking to win I feel they're doomed to be ranked 4 or 5 in the world.
Can't wait until the weekend to see how the Wallabies go against them
Though I dare say Walter will be hoping for an England win.
Go to commentsIF SA and NZ win then its 1,2,3 SA/NZ/IRL Otherwise as you were. This is largely irrelevant beyond bragging rights.
As I have pointed out elsewhere the practical use of the Rankings is to determine the seedings bands for the RWC draw. The draw takes place early 2026 and hopefully the rankings will be taken from then.
Important to be in the top 6, the top 12. (and likely the top 4).
This is because there are now 6 groups in the RWC 2027.
If you are in top 6 you are in Seeding Band 1. That means none of the other top 6 will be in your group.
Seeding Band 2 are teams from 7-12, who will have a top 6 team but no other 7-12 team.
After England's defeat by NZ there is clear water between NZ in 3rd, France in 4th and England in 5th. England are desperate for top4, ill come back and explain why later.
Lets look at Seeding Band 1 and 6th place. If you make 6th, no top 6 team is in your group, you are top dog. If you win your group, you won't be facing a top 6 team in your 1/8th final, you will be facing a weaker team. If you fail to make 6th place you WILL have a top 6 team in your group and if you don't win your group you WILL (probably) meet a top 6 in the 1/8 final. That's massive.
Its Argentina holding 6th now. Assuming England hold 5th, then its a 4 horse race for 6th. Argentina, Scotland, Italy and ...Australia. (ranked 6,7,8,9)
Australia play the Lions in NH summer 2025 they are running out of time to get up to 6th for their own RWC. They MUST make a move now. They must beat Wales and they really must beat Scotland to gain points and take points off them. Could they surprise England or Ireland? England may be the better bet but Schmidt knows Ireland so well having masterminded their downfall in France.
Another one to watch is Italy V Argentina. Italy are ambitious and they will want to start pushing the likes of Argentina. If they win this they are still in the hunt. Well worth a watch either way.
Top4: I think the top 6 will be seeded, all the way through from the draw. If thats the case then the top 4 will be seeded to avoid each other until the semi. Good for more certainty around ticket sales etc. That's a possible reason why England want in there. You're not in there you are hitting a top 4 team in a QF. That's an extra 50:50 match you can do without and avoid by being top 4.
Lets look at what Seeding bands might look like with todays rankings:
Seeding Band 1
IRE/SA/NZ/FRA/ENG/ARG
Seeding Band 2
SCO/ITA/AUS/FIJ/WAL/GEO
Sample Aussie strongest pool opponent and 1/8th final opponent if in top 6
Strongest pool opponent: FIJI
1/8 final opponent GEORGIA
Prognosis: advance to 1/4 and potentially beyond
Sample Aussie strongest pool opponent and 1/8th final opponent if NOT in top 6
Strongest pool opponent: SOUTH AFRICA
1/8 final opponent NEW ZEALAND
Prognosis: You know the prognosis
I am pretty sure this is not lost on Joe Schmidt?
Keep in mind when enjoying the matches.
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