'I don't think it was justifiable as a red card'
CURRIE CUP REACTION: Bulls Director of Rugby Jake White expressed his disappointment with the decision-making process which led to his team being reduced to 14 men in their match against Western Province at Newlands.
The Bulls showed great character to win the match 22-20 after prop Jacques van Rooyen was shown a red card in the 47th minute for a dangerous tackle on Warrick Gelant.
The red card decision was a controversial one as the TMO, Rasta Rasivhenge, initially told referee AJ Jacobs that it was a yellow card offence.
However, after a discussion between the two officials, Jacobs overturned the decision with Rasivhenge in agreement.
Referee Jacobs explained the red card by saying there was “contact to the head with extreme danger and no mitigation”.
“I heard the comms and then all of a sudden they switched it off,” White told reporters after the game.
“It was almost like they [officials] didn’t have an agreement between themselves on whether it was a red, a yellow or a penalty. And then when it was a red, I thought ‘jeez that is a bit strange’.
“Usually if someone’s in doubt then you’d think the doubt would go to the player.
“I don’t think it was justifiable as a red card. Warrick Gelant got up and carried on playing – he didn’t even get banged on his head, he got hit on the shoulder.”
Western Province coach John Dobson also questioned the decision and said there was a “grey area” in the game.
Dobson referred to the Tri-Nations game between the All Blacks and Argentina earlier on Saturday when prop Tyrel Lomax was only given a yellow card for a swinging arm to the head of an opponent during a clean-out.
“I think we are back in a bit of a grey area with those situations,” said Dobson.
“In the Argentina v All Blacks game there was a red card, which was given as a yellow. It may have been worse than what happened in our game.
“I think we are slacking generally and we are finding a lot of mitigating factors like in this morning’s game [Saturday’s Tri-Nations clash] and those injuries can be devasting. If that’s going to be universally applied as a red card then great.
“But with the context of the way rugby is at the moment, I was probably a little surprised that it [the Van Rooyen tackle] was red.
“They did go through the checklist. If it happened to us, I would probably be disappointed that it is a red, but we would have accepted it as well.”
