Jasper Wiese banned for six South Africa Tests after red card in Leicester farewell

Jasper Wiese, the South Africa No 8, will miss a large portion of the Springboks’ summer Tests – including the entire series against Ireland and two Rugby Championship matches – after receiving a six-match ban for the red card received on his final Leicester appearance.

In the second half of the Tigers’ 40-22 victory over Exeter at Mattioli Woods Welford Road last Saturday, Wiese dropped opposing No 8 Ross Vintcent on his head during a ruck and was sent off by referee Karl Dickson.

Wiese admitted the charge of “lifting another player off the ground and dropping or driving that player so that their head and/or upper body makes contact with the ground” at a disciplinary hearing on Wednesday and will miss the world champions’ Test against Wales at Twickenham, the hotly-anticipated series against Ireland, a friendly against Portugal and a Rugby Championship double-header against Australia.

The Rugby Football Union deemed the offence to warrant a mid-range entry point, adding that Wiese’s disciplinary record – this was the 28-year-old’s fourth red card or citing in four seasons – did not entitle him to full mitigation “as an offender of the laws of the game”.

The Panel did not agree with the RFU’s assessment, stating that Wiese’s actions were at a low-end entry point. That being said, Wiese received no reduction in sanction from the six-week entry point given his previous disciplinary record.

Is a six-week ban justified?

Six-week bans in rugby are not commonplace nowadays. Even rarer are six-week bans for what is, essentially, a moment of low-intensity clumsiness. With rugby’s obsession with mitigation and the newly-implemented tackle school, bans of this magnitude tend to only surface for serious offences.

Dickson was correct to red card Wiese given that Vintcent landed on his head but for that action to result in the Springboks No 8 missing a large portion of South African’s summer is draconian. Wiese was attempting to clean out his opposite number and got it wrong, of that there is no doubt, but there was clearly no malice intended in the Springbok’s actions. By the book, it was a red card, but did it really warrant a six-week ban?

It is the lack of mitigation which put the nail in the coffin. The panel’s judgement, that Wiese’s previous record left them unable to reduce the sanction, seems fair on the face of it, but the same panel also states that the No 8’s last “substantive” offence was three years ago. When is the slate wiped clean?

The panel also notes that Wiese showed “some remorse” – approaching Vintcent and apologising before leaving the pitch – and admitted the charge. Such details have worked in the favour of players in the past.

This has nothing to do with the sentimentality of Wiese’s farewell nor the grandeur of the matches which the No 8 will miss. It is simply an unfair punishment. As part of closed law trials which will debut in this year’s under-20 World Championships, World Rugby has promised to “revise on- and off-field sanctions processes, increasing simplicity, consistency and fan understanding”. The sooner that is rolled out to all competitions the better.

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