South African wing Jean de Villiers has been suspended for two weeks for a dangerous tackle during the Springboks’ 31-17 loss to New Zealand in their Tri-Nations test on Saturday.
De Villiers had been cited for an alleged lifting tackle on All Blacks winger Rene Ranger in the 27th minute of the match.
He appeared in Wellington on Sunday before judicial officer Dennis Wheelahan, who found De Villiers guilty after he considered submissions from the player, his representatives and video evidence, governing body Sanzar said in a statement.
De Villiers was suspended until August 1 and will miss the Springboks’ next Tri-Nations match against Australia next Saturday in Brisbane.
He is the second Springboks player to be banned in this year’s competition. Lock Bakkies Botha was suspended for nine weeks after he admitted head butting All Blacks’ scrumhalf Jimmy Cowan in the 32-12 loss last week at Eden Park.
Annoyed
Meanwhile, Springbok captain John Smit has warned his side that ill-discipline will not be tolerated.
“Discipline is vital,” he said after the suspensions brought back memories of the dark reputation of some South African teams before Smit took over the captaincy.
The All Blacks scored freely against an undermanned Springboks in the opening stages of both Tests when Botha (ruck infringement, first Test) and Danie Rossouw (kicking, second Test) spent 10 minutes in the sin-bin.
Discipline is an issue which Smit has targeted since taking over the Springboks leadership in 2004 and when questioned about the latest suspensions he expressed disappointment at having been let down.
“It is certainly something that has been discussed at length for a number of years, especially with the image we had pre-2003 and the work we did to clean that up,” he said.
“It’s certainly not the type of question I want to be answering five or six or seven years later.
“Discipline is vital. If guys are seen to be stepping outside of the team it does get dealt with internally.”
Smit said the yellow cards put the Springboks on the backfoot early in both Tests, and he also had no argument with the ban imposed on senior lock Botha saying it was “just reward for silly behaviour”.
All Blacks captain Richie McCaw — target of the boot that led to Rossouw’s yellow card — was unconcerned.
“It wasn’t very much at all,” McCaw said. “He got done lashing out so [it was] probably a bit stupid really.” – Reuters, AFP