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Hoskins slams Du Plessis decision

Monday 14th July 2008

It's not fair: Oregan Hoskins

South African Rugby Union president Oregan Hoskins has added his five cents' worth to the war of words surrounding South Africa's Tri-Nations tour to New Zealand, saying he was "shocked" by the lack of "consistency" in Bismarck du Plessis's three-week suspension.

Du Plessis was suspended for three weeks for "careless, not deliberate, contact with the eye area" of New Zealand flank Adam Thomson in the Springboks historic 30-28 win over the All Blacks at Carisbrook last Saturday.

Hoskins, who is in Perth to hold expansion talks with SANZAR partners, was in no mood to hide his displeasure regarding the decision which he believes is in contrast to Brad Thorn's one-week ban for a dangerous tackle for Bok skipper John Smit, and has questioned the fairness of the SANZAR judicial system.

The Springboks did not appeal the finding of Australian judicial officer Kim Garling but are nevertheless not happy with outcome.

"We certainly thought about an appeal, but it would have been a logistical nightmare before a very important game," Hoskins told Supersporton Monday.

"It would have kept a player there in New Zealand for a couple more days unsure of whether he would be playing and a coach sitting here unsure of whether to include him in his plans or not."

Hoskins said he would be raising the fairness of the whole judicial system at a SANZAR meeting in Perth later this week.

"It would be remiss of me to remain silent because I believe the sentence was extremely harsh. I was quite shocked by the outcome of the hearing and I'm concerned about the whole system and its consistency. I will table those concerns with SANZAR this week," said Hoskins, who is a lawyer by trade.

"I complained at the World Cup last year about the treatment of Schalk Burger [cited and banned for four matches for a high challenge, reduced to two on appeal] and Tim Gresson, the head of the IRB judicial committee, conceded later that I was correct.

"But I don't want to hear that I'm correct, I want to see the system being corrected," an angry Hoskins said.

The SARU president also pointed a finger at the role of televising producers who he believes selectively choose which replays to broadcast and therefore bring them to the citing commissioner's attention.

"I'm certainly in favour of a clean game and I believe we should be given as much information as possible on foul play. But we must not have selective information," said Hoskins, who has served on disciplinary committees himself.

"Showing slow-motion replays on a selective basis is tantamount to bias and prejudice, and I will be raising that matter too with South Africa's two SANZAR judicial commissioners, Janne Lubbe and Lex Mpati."

Hoskins also slated the charges against Du Plessis, saying he "honestly believes he is not guilty".

"I've watched that replay for hours on super slow-mo. The fact that it was not deliberate, coupled with the fact that it did not cause any injury, means he should have been given the benefit of the doubt and found not guilty," he added.

"There is a third factor to take into account and that is it was Thomson's own team-mate, Jerome Kaino, who played a role in the incident. Kaino hooked Bismarck's arm and dragged it across Thomson's face before pushing him over."

Hoskins said there was a strong contradiction between the treatment meted out to Thorn and Du Plessis.

"Just last week, our captain felt he had been spear-tackled and because of that he's out of the whole Tri-Nations. But the guilty party was only suspended for one match.

"There's a hell of a lot of inconsistency creeping in and it's not good for the game. It's totally unacceptable for us to put up with this," said Hoskins.