Former Springbok coach Nick Mallett believes referee AJ Jacobs was right to only award a yellow card to Stormers flank Johan du Toit in their 24-14 Super Rugby loss to the Sharks in Durban.
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Du Toit received a yellow card in the first minute for taking out Sharks scrumhalf Louis Schreuder in the air.
Schreuder fell awkwardly on his back but Jacobs overruled the television match official Willie Vos's advice to hand out a red card.
Speaking in the SuperSport studio, Mallett commented on the incident:
"In the Louis Schreuder incident, he lands flat on his back and then his head gets whiplashed backwards but he had his arm to protect himself. It was unbelievably poor play by Johan du Toit, who is looking at the ball, then has a look at Schreuder, doesn't stop and then takes a knee in the head for his troubles.
"It's back first in my opinion. And that is exactly what the referees have to consider. The one thing about this that is important, is that the referee had to identify if it was foul play. And, yes it was. Then he has to ask were there mitigating circumstances, and the ref found mitigating circumstances. I agree with AJ Jacobs and the fact that he took another look at it and decided it was just a yellow card."
Du Toit was cited for the incident and will appear before a Sanzaar disciplinary panel at 09:00 on Monday.
The governing body stated that Du Toit was alleged to have contravened Law 9.17: A player must not tackle, charge, pull, push or grasp an opponent whose feet are off the ground.
Upon further review of the match footage, the citing commissioner deemed in his opinion the incident had met the red card threshold for foul play.
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- Compiled by Sport24 staff