OWN CORRESPONDENT, Port Elizabeth | Tuesday 10.00pm.
NATAL hooker Chris Rossouw has been cleared of a charge of throwing a punch at Free State hooker Naka Drotske during last week’s Currie Cup game in Bloemfontein. He will now be free to play for the team in the Bankfin Currie Cup rugby match against Boland at The Stadium, Kings Park, on Sunday.
Rossouw appeared before a South African Rugby Football Union regional judicial committee after a charge was laid by a Bloemfontein advocate who cited the Natal Sharks man for unfair play.
The hearing, chaired by Port Elizabeth judge Lex Mpati and with Senior Council John Pammenter and former Springbok captain Wynand Claassen as his assistants, met for three hours before clearing Rossouw in what was termed “unusual circumstances”. They studied video evidence frame by frame on a large screen without reaching any conclusion.
Judge Mpati said afterwards: “In an unusual decision the judiciary committee foud that it was impossible to gauge the force Rossouw used to push Drotske away in the incident in the 37th minute of the first half. Therefore we found no transgression in terms of Rule 26 (3) relating to the incident. Even if his actions amounted to an act of violence the Committee was of the view that because it could not determine the degree of force in terms of Rules 4.1 and 3.1 of the judicial committee they should take no further action. As a result Chris Rossouw is free to resume playing immediately.”