The late citing
By SANZAR’s rules, a citing must be done within 12 hours of the match. In exceptional circumstances a late citing is allowed. The citing of Sione Lauaki was out of time and the judicial officer found no exceptional circumstances.
The incident in question happened at Loftus Versfeld in a match between the Bulls and the Chiefs. Lauaki tackled Bryan Habana high. For this he was shown a yellow card and sent to the sin bin. To the layman’s eye it looked dangerous; in fact it is hard to imagine a more dangerous high tackle.
The citing, done by the citing commissioner Luvuyo Matsha, was more than two hours late.
The Judicial officer, Dekker Govender, found no exceptional circumstances.
The citing commissioner has access to the footage of the broadcasters after the match. Their van is at the ground and readily available for his use. This van can provide evidence from different angles. If all angles were not immediately available, this would be an example of an exceptional circumstance.
If the citing commissioner’s DVD player had failed or his computer had crashed, this would also count as exceptional circumstances. These did also not apply.
In the Lauaki case the citing commissioner had immediate access to the OB van.
Citing late is an embarrassment and brings the already controversial citing process into disrepute. Not citing or having a citing dismissed is one thing but doing it too late seems childishly negligent.
