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Thu 23 Jun 2016 | 04:08
South Africa U20s skipper Jeremy Ward suspended for two weeks after dangerous challenge

5
Comments

South Africa's Under-20 side have not been very impressive at this year's U20 World Championship, culminating in a 39-17 loss to England in the semi finals earlier this week. To make things worse, captain Jeremy Ward has now been banned for an ugly looking challenge.

Ward received a yellow card for the dangerous tackle on England fullback Max Malins early on in Monday’s clash, and had to appear before a disciplinary committee on Wednesday evening.

The independent judicial officer, Mike Hamlin, ruled that the act of foul play was a breach of Law 10.4(i) (tackling a player in the air) and imposed a low-end entry point sanction of three weeks.

However, the sanction was mitigated to take into account various factors including the player’s exemplary disciplinary record, and was reduced to two weeks. The suspension will remain in place until midnight on 3 July, 2016.

Despite not making it to the final, South Africa will play in the bronze medal (third place) playoff match against Argentina on Saturday. With the suspension in place, Ward will miss the match.

The way that Malins landed looked horrific, but Ward appeared to reach out instinctively more than anything else. He realised it straight away, and he himself will probably be okay with a two week suspension, as on another day a different referee might have shown him red.

- View full highlights of England U20s vs South Africa 20s

Posted By: Grant Constable

5 Comments

  • sjaaks
    11:59 AM 26/06/2016

    Anyone who plays rugby put himself in a dangerous situation since laws are made to be broken, though in this case I think not intentionally. Malins sole responsability here is ball posession and protecting his ribs. He has every right to assume he's protected by the laws of the game. I don't blame him at all ...and England would be the last team I'd root for! ;-)

  • katman
    10:06 AM 26/06/2016

    By the logic of penalising the slightly lower, slightly later jumper for endangering the player who gets to the ball first, one of the Irish guys should have been carded too... for clashing into his own player mid-air in the final test against the Boks. I mean, what he did was no less cynical, intentional or dangerous than what le Roux did earlier in the game, or what Stander did in the first game. He just happened to be wearing the same colour jersey as his victim. For 10 points, discuss.

  • pire
    1:31 PM 24/06/2016

    You would be surprised at what sportsmen would do these days... Every time you go onto the field you are risking injury.

  • pire
    8:25 AM 24/06/2016

    Great skill and awareness. We will see more attacking players jumping before impact thus making any challenge illegal. Dramatic way of milking penalties and lately a sure way of getting the opposition down with a player.

  • drg
    9:24 PM 23/06/2016

    Lucky it was only a yellow imo, I guess the subsequent ban is world rugbys way of saying it was a cock up by the referee and it deserved a red card...

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