Furlong cleared, Wessels banned: SA fans demand answers
OPINION: Rules for thee but not for me – Furlong’s disciplinary case shows the URC’s willingness to ignore its own precedent.
My grandfather, like many South African fans, always thought the referees were out to get us, and every debatable decision that didn’t go our way served as evidence.
“See, they just don’t want us to win,” he would say, shaking his head profusely.
With Tadgh Furlong being cleared to play following an alleged groin-grabbing incident, the URC has particularly enraged South African rugby supporters by dismissing the citing complaint and clearing the Ireland forward to play immediately.
This despite the fact that there is video footage of the incident, and that they banned Bulls hooker Jan-Hendrik Wessels for 9 weeks (reduced to 8) for almost the exact same incident, with less evidence.
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Upon learning the outcome, as someone who always tries to look at a refereeing decision logically and neutrally, I find it difficult not to subscribe to the same thinking as my grandfather did. Because how does a committee find one player guilty of an offence without evidence, but another innocent for not only the same offence, but one where the evidence of wrongdoing is stronger?
A lot was said about the precedent that was set with Wessels’ ban last season. I argued that it was a slippery slope, where big bans could be dished out not due to evidence, but purely on the word and reaction of an opponent. So why exactly wasn’t Furlong given the same punishment?
Was it because Gavin Coombes’ reaction wasn’t strong enough? Would Furlong have been banned had he lashed out in the way Josh Murphy had at Wessels?
In one sense, it should be a win for rugby that a player was found not guilty without clear and obvious evidence. The reason it is being criticised, and rightfully so, is because the URC has shown that it can pick and choose when it wants to throw the rulebook at a player and ban him for weeks on end.
When Ireland and the Springboks meet at the Aviva Stadium at the end of November, Furlong could well be packing down in the front row, free of any suspension. I won’t begrudge him that. A player shouldn’t miss weeks of rugby on the strength of a disputed incident and an opponent’s reaction.
But Wessels did, and nobody has explained why the same logic didn’t apply to him.
Until someone does, every South African watching that first scrum will be thinking what my grandfather always said: they just don’t want us to win.
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