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Cape Town - Former Springbok captain Jean de Villiers feels it’s unacceptable that Hurricanes scrumhalf TJ Perenara is allowed to face the Lions in Saturday’s Super Rugby final.
Perenara has escaped sanction for foul play in last Saturday’s semi-final against the Chiefs.
In the 57th minute of match, Chiefs captain Sam Cane tackled Perenara without the ball in an attempted clean-out at a ruck.
Perenara, who was on the ground, lashed out with both boots and connected with Cane's head.
The All Black scrumhalf showed immediate concern for Cane's welfare - and match officials didn't revisit the incident.
SANZAAR confirmed that there were no citings from either of the weekend’s semi-finals, which means Perenara is free to play in the final against the Lions.
De Villiers, a 109-Test capped veteran, commented on the matter on SuperSport’s Afrikaans SuperRugby programme on Monday night.
He feels Perenara was lucky to escape without punishment.
According to De Villiers, players deserve consistency when it comes to foul-play suspensions.
“It’s frustrating for a player. You just want consistency. You can tackle a guy and get banned for a few weeks… here one guy kicks another guy in the face and nothing happens,” said De Villiers.
“As players we ask: ‘Are there double standards?’
“How will you fix it? Surely, if I kick a guy in his face, there has to be action taken and unfortunately that wasn’t the case.
“And it looked like there was contact, so you can only shrug your shoulders and ask ‘what now?’,” said De Villiers.
