Furious Bokke flood web with 2016 red card as ‘identical’ incident is unpunished
The sight of South Africa scrum-half Grant Williams being knocked unconscious and taken off within seconds of the kick off against Argentina at Ellis Park on Saturday was extremely unpleasant for everyone watching. Worse still, incidents like that have an equally unpleasant aftermath of criticism, which is expected.
It was Argentina fullback Juan Cruz Mallia’s hip that smashed into the head of Williams during a charge down on this occasion, but it has received plenty of comparisons online with a red card to Ireland’s CJ Stander in 2016 against South Africa. It was Stander’s hip on that occasion hitting the head of Pat Lambie, which effectively forced the ex Springbok into retirement. But there is a lot of confusion online as to how Stander was red carded, while Mallia was not punished at all.
Plenty of fans have shared the two clips alongside each other on X, which has opened up quite a debate online. The key difference that has been noted is that Stander actually jumped after Lambie had kicked the ball, while Mallia was already in mid flight when the ball hit Williams’ foot. On top of that, Mallia was successful in his charge down, while Stander missed the ball. This has then led to the question as to whether the fact that the charge down was successful or not should sway the referee’s decision. On this occasion, it clearly did play a part in Andrew Brace’s choice.
Take a look at the two charge downs:
Your telling me CJ Stander gets a red card after a hip to head slam with Pat Lambie but Grant gets taken off in a stretcher while no card or penalty takes place. where did the respect in rugby go. Grant got knocked back into last week poor guy. #rugby #Springboks pic.twitter.com/TIWMqGSLZD
— Annabelle Roberts (@Annasa111) July 29, 2023
Springbok team to face Argentina in Johannesburg:
15 – Willie le Roux (Vodacom Bulls) – 85 caps, 65 pts (13t)
14 – Cheslin Kolbe (Suntory Sungoliath) – 24 caps, 81 pts (12t, 3c, 5p)
13 – Jesse Kriel (Canon Eagles) – 59 caps, 60 pts (12t)
12 – Damian de Allende (Panasonic Wild Knights) – 71 caps, 45 pts (9t)
11 – Kurt-Lee Arendse (Vodacom Bulls) – 8 caps, 50 pts (10t)
10 – Manie Libbok (DHL Stormers) – 5 caps, 19 pts (8c, 1p)
9 – Grant Williams (Cell C Sharks) – 3 caps, 0 pts
8 – Duane Vermeulen (captain, SA Rugby) – 67 caps, 15 pts (3t)
7 – Pieter-Steph du Toit (Toyota Verblitz) – 68 caps, 30 pts (6t)
6 – Marco van Staden (Vodacom Bulls) – 11 caps, 0 pts
5 – Marvin Orie (DHL Stormers) – 12 caps, 0 pts
4 – Eben Etzebeth (Cell C Sharks) – 111 caps, 20 pts (4t)
3 – Frans Malherbe (DHL Stormers) – 60 caps, 5 pts (1t)
2 – Malcolm Marx (Kubota Spears) – 60 caps, 75 pts (15t)
1 – Steven Kitshoff (Ulster) – 73 caps, 10 pts (2t)
Replacements:
16 – Bongi Mbonambi (Cell C Sharks) – 58 caps, 60 pts (12t)
17 – Trevor Nyakane (Racing 92) – 59 caps, 5 pts (1t)
18 – Vincent Koch (Cell C Sharks) – 43 caps, 0 pts
19 – Kwagga Smith (Shizuoka Blue Revs) – 32 caps, 20 pts (4t)
20 – RG Snyman (Munster) – 25 caps, 5 pts (1t)
21 – Faf de Klerk (Canon Eagles) – 47 caps, 44 pts (5t, 2c, 5p)
22 – Lukhanyo Am (Cell C Sharks) – 33 caps, 30 pts (6t)
23 – Damian Willemse (DHL Stormers) – 29 caps, 36 pts (2t, 4c, 4p, 2d)
