Yesterday it was confirmed that Andre Esterhuizen had been handed a four-match ban following his red card against Portugal on Saturday. The ban will be reduced to three games if the giant centre completes the World Rugby Coaching Intervention Programme.
The initial decision to remove Esterhuizen from the field of play after just three minutes was a brave one from referee Hollie Davidson, who made history that day as she became the first-ever female to officiate South Africa in a test match.
Fans have been split on whether the head-on-head incident warranted a red card, with much of the social media coverage gaining a heated response from either side.
Former referee Nigel Owens has looked to end the discussion, as he recently provided his expert analysis via World Rugby’s YouTube channel Whistle Watch.
“The Andre Esterhuizen red card is a tough one” the former referee started.
“First of all we have to determine: Is there foul play?
“Now, an upright tackle is not illegal, it is only illegal if you don’t make a clear attempt to wrap or there is contact with the shoulder to the head or head-to-head contact, then you will have foul play.
“If you have an upright tackle where the player does everything legally, goes to grasp an opponent upright and there is no contact with the head, then we don’t have foul play”, Nigel continued.
“These decisions are very difficult ones to decide on, but it is quite simple when you decide on what you actually have seen. So, if you feel that it is head contact, then you do have a pretty clear straightforward red card – we have a player who’s on the ground and unconscious.
“To wrap it up, the officials on the day felt that they had enough, that there was head contact and therefore we have landed up with a red card.”
View the incident here:
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