Springbok loosie Jasper Wiese suspended for four matches after red card

MANY would argue that the headbutt was more to intimidate than to injure; a bit of “Pasop, moenie met my mors nie, Boetie” without words, but Springbok No.8 Jasper Wiese finds himself suspended for four matches.

Following a World Rugby disciplinary hearing on Tuesday, Wiese has been sanctioned for the red card he received in last week’s 45-0 victory against Italy.

It must have come as quite a blow, quite a bit harder than the knock Italian prop Danilo Fischetti received, but World Rugby perhaps felt that discouraging such aggression is a good policy, and besides, Wiese will be back in contention for selection for the last three Castle Lager Rugby Championship matches in September and October.

Unfortunately for him, the ban will rule him out of the closing Castle Lager Incoming Series match against Georgia in Nelspruit on Saturday, as well as the first three Castle Lager Rugby Championship Tests against Australia in Johannesburg and Cape Town respectively (August 16 and 23), and the first game against New Zealand in Auckland (September 6).

He will be free to play the second All Blacks Test in Wellington (September 13), and the two matches against Argentina in Durban and London (September 27 and October 4).