Mzwandile Stick has hit out at what he calls unfair, inconsistent disciplinary decisions as the Boks prepare for Franco “Sous” Mostert’s looming hearing.
Mostert, who was shown a red card against Italy, faces his judicial process in the coming days, and Stick made it clear the Boks are growing increasingly disillusioned with the current landscape.
“I think Sous will be having his hearing tomorrow or Wednesday and we’ll also be putting in another appeal again. But once again as a team, we’re just disappointed with how things are,” Stick said.
“At the moment – week by week – we’re losing players and it’s sad that everyone was looking forward to the Italy game and for it to turn out the way it did, is just disappointing.”
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Stick doubled down on his unhappiness with how recent decisions have been handled, especially in cases where South African players attempted to tackle legally.
“If you look at Franco Mostert’s actions – and even those of Lood de Jager the previous week – they’ve done everything by the book. The only mistake is that maybe the contact was high and near the head, but I don’t understand how that becomes a permanent [red card],” he said.
“From our side as coaches, we still need to work hard. We can see that these guys are nice and tall and they try to do everything by the book but because rugby is a physical game we don’t always get it perfect. But for them to say the tackle was never legal, is disappointing.”
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The Bok assistant also alluded to a pattern of harsher sanctions against South Africans compared to similar or worse incidents elsewhere.
“I don’t want to say things and then also get banned like Rassie in the past. But once again, if you look at the last four red cards, we had players like Makazole Mapimpi suspended and not on tour at the moment. They guy has 47 Test matches and it would’ve been opportunity for him to get to 50. Jan-Hendrik Wessels, a youngster, misses out – suspended.
“Looking at the Fiji and France game and the cleanouts that were there, same with Ireland-Australia situations that were even worse than what those guys have been suspended for. They are suspended but other players will come back again this week. Surely somewhere, somehow, this is not fair. I don’t think we deserve this as a team. Are we treated fairly? I don’t think so.”
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