Bakkies Botha was cited by citing commissioner Freek Burger after Saturday’s clash with the Stormers.

The big Springbok enforcer was playing just his third game of the season and building up his match fitness. He has shown no desire to back away from the physical stuff and on Saturday slowly looked to be regaining his best form as he showed with a couple of strong runs with ball in hand.

The incident he is being cited for happened in the early stages of the match when the Stormers had a ruck on their right hand touch line. Botha entered from the side of the ruck and Gio Aplon was flattened. Reports are stating that Botha did not use his arms and it was a dangerous tackle. He made contact near Aplon’s head, but it was neither malicious nor overtly dangerous, it was more simply a case of Botha entering from the side of the ruck.

C’mon Mr Burger…the Aussies and Kiwis get away with more than that! Because it’s Bakkies there’s the strong possibility that he’ll get more than a few weeks and miss the Bulls semi and possible final just when they need him most. (At least the Bulls have plenty of depth in the locking department and Danie Rossouw and flip van der Merwe have been excellent this year).

The hearing is set to take place at Loftus Versfeld on Monday morning. Let’s hope sanity prevails and we see the big man join his locking buddy Victor Matfield at Orlando stadium in Soweto for this weekend’s semi-final clash against the Crusaders.