Neethling Fouche gives his view on the tackle that earned the Stormers tighthead prop a red card and four-game suspension.
Last week, Fouche received the ban following a straight red for a tackle on Ulster centre Ben Carson in round 14 of the Vodacom URC.
The suspension rules out the 32-year-old Fouche for the remainder of the Stormers’ URC league campaign.
ICYMI – Stormers heavy cops hefty ban
An SA Rugby magazine poll on Instagram reveals that Fouche was among 505 voters who believed referee Andrea Piardi should have allowed play to continue, placing fault with Carson. Stormers teammates Deon Fourie and Adre Smith agreed with Fouche.
Two-time World Cup winner Duane Vermeulen and Springbok hooker Andre-Hugo Venter joined 484 voters arguing Fouche’s action warranted only a penalty, while Scotland winger Duhan van der Merwe sided with the 40% majority (927 votes) supporting a yellow card.
A URC disciplinary panel found that Fouche breached the law against charging an opponent without attempting to grasp them.
Writing for TimesLIVE, veteran rugby journalist Mark Keohane believes the Stormers leadership has no choice but to challenge Fouche’s conviction, claiming he should never have received a red card, let alone faced further punishment.
Keohane also condemned the TMO’s intervention through frame-by-frame analysis that exaggerated the head contact, and highlighted a bias where defenders face punishment regardless of the ball-carrier’s contribution to dangerous contact.
Photo: Ben McShane/Gallo Images
