‘I don’t think that was a red card’ – Jake White explains why Bulls ‘will fight’ Springboks hooker’s sending off
Jake White has confirmed that the Bulls will challenge Johan Grobbelaar's red card.
Bulls director of rugby Jake White has promised to fight for Springboks hooker Johan Grobbelaar in his disciplinary hearing after his red card against the Scarlets.
It’s the second red card in as many weeks for the Pretoria-based outfit after David Kriel was given his marching orders in the victory over Ospreys.
Johan Grobbelaar’s red card
The Bulls challenged the decision that resulted in his sending off and did so successfully with the utility back free to play in the remaining matches before the international break. Kriel did not feature in Friday night’s 23-22 defeat to the Scarlets but could return to action in the Bulls’ away game against Benetton.
However, hooker Grobbelaar might not have that opportunity after being given his marching orders in the latter stages of the loss to the Welsh region.
The front rower made a high tackle on opposition hooker Marnus van der Merwe in the 66th minute of the match and after his dismissal, Scarlets pounced to score the match-winning try through Tom Rogers.
‘Laughable decision’ as Springboks hooker sees red in Bulls defeat as Tongan star escapes punishment
Speaking after his side suffered their first loss of the new season, White said that he did not believe that his hooker should have been sent off and confirmed that the Bulls will challenge the decision with the judiciary as they did in Kriel’s case.
“Well look I want a similar case, the bottom line is I don’t think that was a red card, there were circumstances which I’m obviously not going to share,” he said.
The former Springboks head coach again raised the confusion around red cards in the game currently and how incidents are officiated before revisiting the debate around the 20-minute red cards after commenting on it earlier in the week.
“When there’s someone that is malicious and it’s off the ball and it’s genuinely a red card then we must never take that away from rugby,” he continued.
“There is no place in rugby for that but there are things that happen in rugby that are unnecessary, the red cord was put there for that exact reason because [of incidents] that are dirty and because it’s malicious and because it’s premeditated.
“Red cards weren’t ever put in place for rugby incidents that’s why I said if we start with a thing is it a rugby incident? If yes, well then it becomes very different to the outcome.
“If you start with ‘Is it foul play?’ which is the way it is currently done, then you’re going to get a different outcome.
“So I said this about the 20-minute red cards, what’ll happen is you’ll get an orange card because the orange is closer to red and it’s not yellow so then what we could do is go yellow is 10, orange is 15 and red is 20 and I don’t think that makes it easier for a referee. I think it makes it more difficult, a red card is simple it’s red you were out of line something that looks unnatural, it’s something that stands out and there’s there’s no reason for you to keep that guy on the field.”
Why the Bulls will challenge the red card
Often players who have been sent off will plead guilty during their disciplinary hearing and won’t challenge a red in order to avoid a longer ban.
However, White explained why they did not go down that route with Kriel and will follow the same template with Grobbelaar, who could be ruled out of contention for the Springboks Autumn Nations Series if he cops a lengthy ban.
“I will look at that [red card] and I will fight for the player,” White said.
“Because we must also understand that players don’t want red cards next to their name, they don’t want when you look at his record that he’s got red cards and it doesn’t matter whether you go ‘Okay I accept the red’ because it never goes away, so if it’s not a red or you genuinely think you need to protect the player that’s also part of what the coaches, the staff and I suppose the judiciary need to work on as we don’t just want to accept that it’s a red card.
“The next thing that happens when he gets a legitimate red card, they’re going to say ‘Well we can’t let you off because you have got a history of red cards’, so that is why I think players are also very conscious of not just accepting that it’s a red card.”
Feining an injury
The Bulls boss also commented on the actions of Van der Merwe who held his face and lay on the ground after the tackle forcing the officials to not only stop the game but check the incident.
While White did not address the actions directly, he said that he would never tell his players to behave in that manner.
“My thoughts are that I will never ever coach a player to lie down and try and influence a decision, I’ve been coaching a long time and I would never ever encourage anything like that,” he said.
