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Mon 19 Nov 2018 | 09:56
Springbok captain gets away with out of character reverse 'headbutt' against Scotland

11
Comments

South Africa captain Siya Kolisi was thought to be in serious trouble after he appeared to headbutt Scotland's Pete Horne in South Africa's 26-20 victory at Murrayfield on Saturday. As there has been no sanction, South Africa will be relieved to have their skipper for their final international against Wales.

The moment occurred around the 30th minute and was somehow missed by Romain Poite and the entire officiating crew. Kolisi was cleared out of a ruck onto his back in a seemingly normal way but then flung his head back into the side of Horne's head.

Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus said as much after the match: "I heard about it just after the game... I haven’t seen it. Look I am sure the citing commissioner will take a look and if there was anything serious and we are in the wrong‚ what comes our way we have to accept."

Speaking of whether he believed the headbutt was intentional, Erasmus said: "I know him as a player and as a man so I’d be surprised."

The flanker was being held at the time, so obviously took exception to it as he tried to get up to join the defensive line, but couldn't.

World Rugby's citing policy dictates that the citing commissioner has 24 hours from the final whistle to cite any incidents worthy of red cards. That would have meant the cutoff time was Sunday night.

UPDATE: Kolisi did receive a Citing Commissioner's warning.

Having reviewed the video angles, the Citing Commissioner determined that there were mitigating factors which meant that the action did not meet the red card threshold, including the player being illegally prevented from re-joining the play by Scotland’s Peter Horne and the moderate force of the strike to the side of the head. The match officials did not see the incident at the time on the field of play.

Citing Commissioner Warnings are issued for offences falling just short of a Red Card and, or similarly to cards, will form part of the player’s disciplinary record.

Posted By: davidharper

11 Comments

  • 10stonenumber10
    2:13 PM 22/11/2018

    This is the difficulty of modern sport. It is one of the last popular things that is still connected to physical humanity... these are real people, competing in real time, with real emotions. This isn't a playstation, or social media, there is no script. We have all had moments where we are close to snapping, some people go over the edge and lash out. We also have times where we don't notice everything going on around us.One day we are saying rugby is too soft, Owen Farrell nearly kills a Springbok with a 50/50 hit, and all of a sudden everybody is backing the cotton wool brigade. The only difference between this headbutt and the Bakkies Botha on Jimmy Cowan one was that he went backwards. A clever lawyer will argue that he couldn't possibly know where he was aiming, and was just "using his opponent like a Foam back roller" to slow the guy trying to slow him down. Captains don't get cited. Apart from Dylan Hartley.

    • pickay
      1:25 PM 23/11/2018

      In my book, this doesn't make Kolisi a bad person. I can also relate to him lashing out in this instance. But you still just kinda can't do this on a rugby pitch. Botha got 9 weeks for his little stunt.

      • 10stonenumber10
        2:08 PM 23/11/2018

        Kolisi is the billboard captain, hopefully he doesn't do it again

  • katman
    2:32 PM 20/11/2018

    Terrible decision (or lack thereof) by both the TMO and the citing commission. If ever a transgression was clear-cut, this was it.

  • im1
    4:59 PM 19/11/2018

    Brenden Nel is a complete joke. If Farrell had done that, he would be absolutely crucifying him and asking why World Rugby hasn't tried to put him in jail.

  • reality
    3:34 PM 19/11/2018

    Very surprised that he got away with it but i'm glad he did. Horne deserved what he got for what he was doing, regardless of what the rulebook says.

    • scraggly
      3:42 PM 19/11/2018

      next you'll be saying O'Driscoll deserved that spear tackle from Umanga .....that is an utterly ridiculous statement to make. No player deserves a headbutt ....end of

  • scraggly
    3:00 PM 19/11/2018

    Here's the exact wording of the review"Having reviewed the video angles, the Citing Commissioner determined that there were mitigating factors which meant that the action did not meet the red card threshold, including the player being illegally prevented from re-joining the play by Scotland’s Peter Horne and the moderate force of the strike to the side of the head."oh he was being held, so that means headbutting is perfectly acceptable. I mean it's almost as if Horne deserved it. Maybe Kolisi deserved another free attempt to smash Horne's nose/face Remember kids make sure you use moderate force and you won't go wrong.

  • pickay
    12:29 PM 19/11/2018

    I am usually complaining about too many citings, but here I am really surprised he just got away. Terrible sportsmanship by the captain, and even though he didn't properly connect there was clear intent to headbutt Horne in the face. I don't mind taking into account that he was held back, but still a puzzling decision to let him off the hook entirely.

  • peetwindhoek
    10:57 AM 19/11/2018

    With the climate surrounding force or even just touching another players head, this should have been more than the slap on the wrist he received.

  • scraggly
    10:42 AM 19/11/2018

    no citing ..quite shocking really. This is a clearly calculated action, Kolisi lifts his knee to generate momentum for the strike. Yes, he was held, but are we saying that's justification for striking an opposing player's head? That's a very dangerous precedent to set.

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