Boks on Tour

Habana off the hook

2009-11-17 15:28

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Off the hook (File)

London - A charge of foul play for allegedly kicking an opponent has been dismissed against Springbok wing Bryan Habana.

VIDEO: Habana 'kicks' Clerc

Habana was cited under Law 10.4C, for allegedly kicking France wing Vincent Clerc during the Boks' 20-13 loss in Toulouse.

At a hearing at a Heathrow Airport hotel Habana pleaded not guilty to the charge, which carries a minimum one-week suspension according to the International Rugby Board (IRB) regulations.

Judicial officer Lorne Crerar from Scotland took just over an hour to dismiss the case. Local solicitor Owen Eastwood represented Habana.

Springbok media manager Anthony Mackaiser confirmed the outcome of the hearing.

Habana will now be able to take his place on the wing against Italy and also Ireland at Croke Park next week.

Your Comments

Vaste 611/18/2009 1:30 PM: @ Blou - dis omdat jy bevooroordeeld is, jy moet die scene van die ander kant af kyk om te sien hoe sy been getrek word deur die fransman. So, sê nou mooi, SORRY agter my aan..... @ Morne - I see that you are one of those peole who just cannot accept that you were wrong and move on - its like playing the racist card. @ David - still sleeping David, get the footage to see the maneuverfrom the other side, then shut up. @ the rest of you who still cannot see that Habana did NOT KICK Cleck, you must be BB supporters..... suurgat nê.

@Cliff Bradley11/18/2009 12:53 PM: I pointed out the same regarding bloubul yesterday at 3:38pm already and I am not even a WP supporter. I reckon bloubul has read the comments 20 times by now but is following a tradition: Talk big and run when proven wrong. Sooooooo typical!!

Louisg11/18/2009 9:25 AM: Nobody (..even a blue bulls supporter) after looking at the ref, which was 5 metres away and could see everything going on, would kick or hurt an opponent in full view.... as there is a time and place for all that on the rugby field.... That frog did it on purpose.....!! look at the video it is as plain as daylight....!! He and his mates were much more intelligent than the boks on the day.... they organised it with the ref to look the other way (which he did for the entire game being who he is...!!) when thuggary was about to be committed on the Boks... the fact that that they then followed up with exellent rugby and were not caught is a feather in their caps....!! "allez blues teach us more...!!"

E the P11/18/2009 8:42 AM: The whole citing process should be cited and banned forever. It is flawed and biased and not helping rugby at all

Ed11/18/2009 7:10 AM: Habanero, good comment. If any citings should've been done, it should've been whoever gouged Matfield's eye, and dug a hole in Bakkie's head, etc. The off-the-ball play by the French was incredible! Even more incredible was that it was tkaing place right in front of that idiot ref, Barnes.

Unreal!11/18/2009 6:44 AM: It is unbelievable the amount of k#* that some guys write here and seemingly believes it! All of a sudden all the BB supporters is anti-Habana and will most properly boooooo him next year! What a bunch of dumb wankers. As for Carter he should have got 2 weeks! No I actually like Carter and rate him without a doubt as the best no 10 in the world. He is a humble guy and accepted his punishment. It doesn’t make him a dirty player but the same rules should be applied for all players, even ou vuilgat kerkman Bakkies Botha!

Cliff Bradley11/18/2009 6:24 AM: Blou Bul - Now The Truth Comes Out - Just Sour Grapes From The Danville Diamonds- You Owe Brian & WP An Apology, Or Are You To Yellow To Admit You Were Wrong

spietz11/17/2009 9:03 PM: Brian Habana has over the last year-and-a-half steadily been pushing the limits between clean and dirty play. He was lucky this time, but the referees will now have their eyes on him.

Zitka11/17/2009 6:07 PM: even if clerc pull the leg, boks were grazin the lawn during all the second period.mainly due to our scrum's men. And for the Anthem ya just have to know that SA Ambassy chooses that guy.

phil11/17/2009 5:56 PM: He should never had had to explain himself (for something he did not do). Apparently, the citing reached the Springboks AFTER the 48 hour deadline!

Bernard11/17/2009 5:25 PM: Rather cite the anthem singer

NCT11/17/2009 5:21 PM: Can the Habana haters please just all go to hell. That french freak was practically humping Bryan's leg. Some other players would have kicked the his front teeth in, and rightfully so.

Shawn 11/17/2009 5:05 PM: Should have kicked some sence into the reff.

LORRAINE11/17/2009 5:04 PM: HABANA YOU GO BOY!

Banana11/17/2009 4:40 PM: You need only look ast his past record...the guy is clean squeaky if you like...end of...

Vaste 611/17/2009 4:38 PM: @ John - I hope you read this article too and apologize to Habana for your silly comment in the other article and hopefully you learn from this that even if you were a ref for ten years and played for even longer, you still make bad judgements and mistakes like most refs do - even though you do not like to hear it.

joker11/17/2009 4:37 PM: Go on, pull the other one!

charles11/17/2009 4:33 PM: David open your eyes.a player has his hand around Habana's leg,then he pulls it.put on glasses if u can't see.

Dave11/17/2009 4:25 PM: what a waste of time seriously, they probably had a look at the video and said the same thing. As for you David and the likes, go play somewhere else...

Spitfire11/17/2009 4:24 PM: Hang on, according to the bok supporters, the IRB have it in for the boks, this does not make any sense at all???????? @Ian, well said mate.

Lee11/17/2009 4:21 PM: Habana's a great player however the kick was a display of childish petulance that only serves to further damaging the fragile image of SA rugby and South Africans in general.

Andre11/17/2009 4:20 PM: Dit is goed dat hy losgekom het. Hy het heeltemal te sag geskop om skuldig bevind te word. Bryan onthou as jy wil skop moet jy ordentlik skop. As jy dan skuldig bevind word was dit minstens die moeite werd.

Mr Whaks11/17/2009 4:17 PM: Yoh!!! I can't believe that some of you still saw Brain kicking Clerc. I did not watch the game, but at first veiw of the video on the Sport24 website, I could see that the frenchman pulled Brains leg.

Judge Dread11/17/2009 4:16 PM: What a waste of time! Any idiot could see even on TV that the Frenchy pulled Bryans leg. Try it at home. Straigthen your leg and put some weight on it and let your little boy pull your leg and you'll see the knee-jerk reaction. Nothing new, the French have always been full of it.

STOFFEL11/17/2009 4:14 PM: Brain skop volgene keer sy hele bobek weg dan het hy iets om oor te kla

Kylee11/17/2009 4:04 PM: Not that i think habana did anythin wrong but at least for once a saffer was let off!!!

Burgiesburnin11/17/2009 4:01 PM: Dirty cowardly play, if he did that off the field he would have got 18 months and would have deserved it.

OOMDOK11/17/2009 4:01 PM: As Habana hom geskop het sou daar net bloed gewees het, en Clerc bly le het. Totaal en al onnodige "citing";

David11/17/2009 4:00 PM: Me thinks Habana is extremely lucky to get away with this. Footage of the incident clearly showed that he kicked the French winger, Vincent Clerc on his head. No justice in this - take the Dan Carter incident!. Carter gets banned for one week for a marginal incident. The citing commissioners must get their act together!!

Jou_Ma11/17/2009 4:00 PM: When it happened in the game I thought that he deserves 6 weeks. This morning I looked at the video again, and it was not a kick. Habana's leg was pulled by another French player. I looked at it from multiple angles and saw the same thing. That should be an offence equal to diving in football. The idiot should get cited and banned.

Habanero11/17/2009 3:58 PM: They should now cite the damn frog who pulled his leg, cite the frog who acted to try to get him carded, cite the citing officer for citing the wrong player, cite the idiot who took one hour to absolve him and cite all the anti-bull supporters for bitching about HABANERO

Met Uysh!11/17/2009 3:58 PM: Like I said, given the great acting by the french, it is obvious that Habana did NOT kick the guy. If he had, Clerc would not have stood up and would have rolled around in agony, holding his face, require medical attention, only to stand up, have a sip of water with no signs of damage and continue playing. Bryan is not that type of player

Dude11/17/2009 3:57 PM: @Blou, @Morney, you can not be banned for kicking the air, he should have been banned for missing the guy!!

AD11/17/2009 3:55 PM: Clerc kicked himself!!!! Hy het Habana se been in sy eie gesig "getrek" Clerc kan bly wees HY is nie geskors omdat "hy homself geskop het nie" Volgens Law 10.4C paragraaf 4.1

chameleon11/17/2009 3:54 PM: this is ridiculous. i'd site the french for wasting the commissioner's time. blou, jy maak seersekerlik n grappie ne? jy trek nou ons bene soos daai fransman brian s'n getrek het. as daai n skop was dan kan n laerskool b-spannetjie losskakel maar vir steyn van sy pligte verlig!

RG11/17/2009 3:54 PM: So now what happens to the french player (15)who actuall y pulled Bryan`s leg so that it would look like he kicked the wing in the face...Typical un sporting french play!

Awwsum11/17/2009 3:49 PM: You blue bulls are someting else. Now that he's moving to the Cape you want him suspended for a year, but come Bakkies' shoulder charges 6 weeks is too much. Get a brain

Morne11/17/2009 3:48 PM: Lucky, very lucky. I feel it would have been worth while punishing him for that cheap shot. Habana is really out of his cage lately. 1 week suspension might just have gotten him in line again.

Ian11/17/2009 3:47 PM: Good news justice was done, now all the Boks supporters can get back to blaming the ref, the singing of the national anthem, the flag flying upside down, it was wet, the wind was blowing the team was tired, the French smelt of garlic basically anything except that on the night the French played better.

Obvious11/17/2009 3:47 PM: How about giving the toad that pulled his leg a slap on the wrists? He wasted time & money and attempted to harm another player's carreer. Punching or tackling high is one thing, but trying to get him banned for a few games is a whole different story. Chancer!

CM11/17/2009 3:45 PM: What happens to Clerc now? Does he just get away with his unsportsmanlike behaviour? Its worse that football players diving

Prof11/17/2009 3:45 PM: There is no luck, he was not even supposed to be cited in the first place.

Blou11/17/2009 3:39 PM: Vir my gelyk hy skop die ou se hele bo-bek af; hoe kan hy onskuldig wees

Mel11/17/2009 3:38 PM: Well Done Bryan - one could see from the video that you didn't kick the opposition. Your leg was pulled! And it takes over an hour to reach this decision - wow........

Good 4 u!!11/17/2009 3:38 PM: So what now bloubul!! You had something to say about the Habana / WP link and foul play and now you typically have pie in your face. (I am relating to an earlier article published on sport24!)

Rob11/17/2009 3:33 PM: Wow he is lucky considering our previous run-ins with the IRB. For once the ball bounces in our favour... Bryan can count his lucky stars!

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