Springboks: England star slammed as ‘irresponsible’ for supporting Andre Esterhuizen after ‘utter poppy b******s’ red card

England forward Joe Marler has hit out at the red card given to South Africa’s Andre Esterhuizen and the subsequent judicial hearing into the offence.

The Springbok was sent from the field after being sin-binned for a head-on-head tackle with Portugal’s Jose Lima.

Following a bunker review, the yellow card was upgraded, resulting in the Boks being without Esterhuizen for the rest of the match.

Marler initially branded the officiating call “ridiculous” on his X (formerly Twitter) account on Saturday before once again taking to social media after the centre’s judicial hearing was confirmed.

The prop, who played with the midfield powerhouse at Harlequins between 2020 and 2024, described it as “complete and utter poppy b******s”.

Marler slammed

England’s loosehead was criticised, though, with a number of fans believing the red card to be the correct decision.

“I can’t help but think this is irresponsible, all this does is give credence to the minority of fans holding the game back,” one person wrote.

“Disagree with the law if you want but it was absolutely applied correctly. Maybe call out the poor technique at the same time.”

The critics of Marler also included a “one-eyed Springbok supporter”, who argued: “How was it not deserving of a red? Head on head contact, Portuguese player knocked out cold, barely any bend. How are you going to discourage this sort of tackle otherwise?”

Springboks: Andre Esterhuizen BANNED after Portugal red but Rassie’s savvy decision rewarded

Esterhuizen’s punishment was then revealed late on Tuesday with the centre being banned for four matches, although it will be reduced to three upon the completion of World Rugby’s Coaching Intervention programme.

As a result, he could only miss one Springboks match after Rassie Erasmus decided to leave him out of the Rugby Championship squad for the games against the Wallabies.

With Esterhuizen back at the Sharks, the sanction includes their next four Currie Cup encounters against the Lions, Pumas, Griquas and Cheetahs.

Erasmus’ view

The Boks head coach initially addressed the incident, as well as Quan Horn’s yellow card, in his post-match press conference.

Erasmus stated that Esterhuizen’s tackle was an “accident”, but did not give a definitive opinion as to whether he felt the red card was correct or not.

“Our discipline is obviously something that we’ll need to look at,” he added.

“To get a red card so early – two minutes into the game – obviously you won’t win World Cups like that and then another two yellow cards so yes I got everything out of the performance that I wanted except that.”

“It’s definitely an accident and it’s not something done on purpose.

“We really train level changes and minding players in the air a hell of a lot. You can’t really say to a player that was on purpose, it was an accident.”

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