South Africa flanker Schalk Burger has been suspended for eight weeks after he was found guilty of eye gouging during the Springboks’ series-clinching 28-25 win over the British and Irish Lions at Pretoria on the weekend.
Sport24 reports that Burger was charged with making contact with the face in the eye area of Lions winger Luke Fitzgerald only 32 seconds into his 50th appearance for the Springboks. He was yellow carded at the time by referee Christophe Berdos of France.
Lock Bakkies Botha was suspended for two weeks for charging dangerously into Lions prop Adam Jones, who left the field early in the second half with a suspected dislocated shoulder.
South Africa Rugby announced the bans on Monday after both players attended disciplinary hearings by International Rugby Board judicial officer Alan Hudson of Canada.
Burger will be allowed to return to rugby on Aug. 23, ruling him out of Tri-Nations matches against New Zealand on July 25 and Aug. 1 and Australia on Aug. 8.
South Africa’s first match after Burger’s ban expires is at Perth, Australia on Aug. 29.
Botha was found guilty of dangerously charging into a ruck without binding on a player in the fourth minute of the second half. He won’t be allowed to play until July 12.
TV replays showed Burger’s hand apparently making contact with Fitzgerald’s eye in a ruck, confirming what touch judge Bryce Lawrence reported to Berdos and making it fortunate for South Africa that he wasn’t directly red carded.
South Africa rallied from 19-8 down with 17 minutes to go and the match was locked at 25-all going into the final minute when replacement back Morne Steyn kicked the winning points.
The South Africans have a 2-0 lead going into the last match of the series this weekend.
Burger was the second veteran international player to be banned for eye gouging in a matter of days. Italy captain Sergio Parisse was suspended for eight weeks for eye gouging a 27-6 loss to New Zealand at Christchurch on Saturday.
Parisse, a 65-test veteran who had never previously received a red or yellow card in a test match, was found guilty of making contact with the eyes or eye area of All Blacks lock Isaac Ross in the 58th minute.
IRB judicial officer Paul Tully found the Italian No. 8 guilty after viewing video evidence and hearing reports from the match referee and linesmen, imposing a ban which will run from Aug. 2 – when the Italian domestic season starts – until Sept. 26.
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At least Brussow will get a chance to start in the 3rd test. 😕
Schalk Burger surely had the all time worst 50th test played in World Rugby…BTW, the yellow that should have been a red, that late off side penalty that nearly cost the Boks the test, not even have to go further, rather enjoy the Boks series victory
as i have already said, pity it isn’t a 20 week ban to make sure he can’t play in the tri nations. i want a tri nations win this year and schalk isn’t the man to do it.
A blessing in disguise for the Boks, Brussouw is currently playing out of his skin and deserves to be picked over someone who is relying on his reputation.
That said i always assumed Schalla was above the thuggery of rugby – is you played hard occasionlly it went over the top – but the incident was out and out thuggery and i have lost a great deal of respect for the player in question. He should have been banned for longer than eight weeks.
He was lucky not to get a red.
I wonder if Div will call up a replacement for Schalk.
How about Jean Deysel??? 😎
Nothing about Sheridans hitting Becker in the nuts?
@wpw (Comment 5) : you sneaky sod! You’ve checked out the Currie Cup fixtures, haven’t you? 🙂
It took JW and co almost 5 years to clean up the Springboks act and shake the dirty play label..
It took Schalk 30 sec to flush all tht down the toilet.
The IRB need to have a long hard look at themselves 8 weeks is a slap on the wrist and imo should have been 6 months.
Disgusting act from the man and if I never see him in a Bok jersey it would be too soon.
@Charlie (Comment 2) :
Spot on , almost cost us the game TWICE !
He is a grade A knob.
@CoffeeShopBok;-) (Comment 8) : I agree he should have got 6 months
Bring on Brussow!!! Not from the bench either.
We were cruising the first test till Brussow was taken off and were losing the second test until he was brought on! The opposition cant score if he keeps robbing them!
Serves the twit right. (KSA Shark)