Bakkies Botha has been banned for 4 weeks!
The Big Bulls lock was cited by citing commissioner Freek Burger after Saturday’s clash with the Stormers.
The hearing took place at Loftus Versfeld on Monday morning, and after 4 hours it had to roll over into Tuesday.
The news on Tuesday was not great for the Bulls and even the Springboks, with the big man ruled out for 4 weeks.
It’s harsh, very harsh. Botha plays on the edge, a tremendously physical player who occasionally comes into the side of rucks, hits hard and is reliant on getting his timing and arm placement just right.
In the tackle on Gio Aplon that Botha was cited for, he clearly came in from the side and struck the Stormers winger near the head. It was not malicious or reckless in my view, just unfortunate.
My biggest issue is the consistency. Why can other players continually perform similar actions for no penalty, whereas every year Bakkies gets cited for legal and illegal play and gets suspensions that are at the high end of the limit. His history counts against him, and he is a marked man.
Talk to the man, you’ll find a gentle giant. A man who plays his rugby hard and asks for no quarter to be given. But equally he’ll take anything dished out at him and leave what happens on the field. It’s such a shame that Botha is picked on, but he needs to try and stay away from danger.
For their semi-final against the Crusaders, the Bulls will probably partner Victor Matfield with Danie Rossouw as starting lock, with Flip van der Merwe on the bench. The Bulls still possess a world class lock combination, but the omission of Botha is a huge shame.
They should ban him for life, it’s not WWF, it’s rugby. Maybe he should try to spend more time with the ball and less with the men on the field.
LOL, well to quote Tana Umaga, “it’s not tiddlywinks” either.
All I ask for is consistency, if you ban Bakkies, you probably have to ban half the other players as well. It’s not fair to pick on one guy. Any thoughts?
he’s being punished for repeated dangerous play. if I kept making the same mistake at work there would be consequences – my mistake wouldn’t possibly maim someone.
where humans make the rules there will always be inconsistency. there’s no point in him complaining about being a ‘marked man’ he’s only got so long left to play and should try stay on the field as much as possible.
Yes but what I am syaing is other guys can do the same and not be punished, that is not fair.
But you are right he’s being punished for repated incidents and needs to watch himself.
Rugby is not for sissy’s.
It has become custom to site Bakkies at loose rucks and mauls, it’s getting boring. All the players are entering these mauls and rucks on their own, just as players want to compete for the ball so do the other players prevent them from getting it, Aplon, wrong time and place boeta.
To his credit APlon showed great courage and never complained. It’d be interesting to hear his reaction, and I’m sure he wouldn’t want Bakkies banned.
Not sure if he has been cited for the head butt on Jimmy Cowan during today’s Tri-Nations game.
If he is will you still think he is being singled out?
Hi Blair,
Bakkies got 9 weeks for his headbutt. It was a totally fair decision and he was lucky no one saw it on the field because he deserved a red card.
I suspected a minimum of 8 weeks, but his past record would have come into it.
Nothing excuses a head butt and that is different to cleaning out at a ruck. Bakkies got what he deserves for this incident.
Sanjay