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 17/9/07
As put-downs go you would have to go some
way to beat the slap in the face delivered
to Rugby World Cup Judicial Officer Terry
Willis – the Australian who decided on
Schalk Burger’s four-match suspension.
Willis, who allegedly behaved arrogantly in
Burger’s hearing and at one point sneered
that he had been a No6 flank himself and
knew for a fact that Burger had not been
going for the ball, was literally told he
did not know what he was talking about in
the statement proclaiming the reduction, by
half, of Burger’s banning.
The Appeal Committee comprised chairman
Justice Wyn Williams, Bruce Squire QC and
Judge Guillermo Tragant. They “determined
that the Judicial Officer (Willis) had made
an error in his first instance decision, in
that he was wrong to find that the player
was not at any time during the incident
intending to win the ball.
“On the basis of the video evidence and the
transcript of the initial JO (don’t you just
love the abbreviation!) hearing the Appeal
Committee decided that the player was
attempting to win the ball for a significant
part of the time involved. However, the
Committee found that the player ultimately
realised that he was not going to catch the
ball and instinctively adjusted his approach
to tackle the opposing player.
“The Committee concluded that the tackle was
a dangerous tackle but noted that the arm of
Mr. Burger was withdrawn following contact
with the opposing player. The Committee
decided the offence should be categorised as
a lower level entry offence rather than a
mid range offence.
“The entry point for such an offence is a
two week (or two match) suspension. The
Appeal Committee confirmed that there were
no aggravating factors but considered that
the player's previous disciplinary history
should be taken into account.
“Therefore the Appeal Committee decided that
the sanction imposed on the player should be
two matches instead of four.”
The implications of this climb down are
horrific; amounting to a concession that
rugby’s disciplinary process is seriously
flawed and open to human prejudice and
official injustice and calling into question
the competence of the Judicial Officer
concerned.
As always players must wonder why errant
officials are not subjected to the same
punitive measures they are.
And who do we have to thank? Burger’s
“reduction of sentence” came as a boon to
the Boks, who’ll now have him back in the
frame for their last pool match, but we
should not lose from sight that SA Rugby
were apparently hopelessly unprepared to
deal with a judicial hearing.
Word has filtered out that the team’s
management did not have a participation
agreement with them and that other officials
in France also were not in possession of
this crucial document.
The process of defending a player in trouble
with the law, as it were, was not defined,
or even in place, and thus it was that calls
went out for help from afar.
The distress flare went up via the player to
his father Schalk snr. “Groot” Schalk in
turn contacted Johann Rupert, who was in
Geneva for Richemont’s AGM, and the business
magnate called in the council of a friend
and lawyer of his, Frederik Morkel, an
expert in intellectual property rights, to
find someone to handle the young Springbok’s
defence.
Morkel in turn called on John MacLaughlin, a
British-based QC, and Rob Hersov, who heads
up an executive jet company, arranged to get
the legal beagle to Paris.
Terry Willis’ alleged obdurate stance in the
first hearing came as a blow but at the
appeal MacLaughlin was able to successfully
argue Burger’s plea for a reduction.
Naturally one is pleased about the outcome
but I have to say that part of what is wrong
with rugby’s disciplinary processes is the
advent of high-powered lawyers – England,
here as in Australia, have a QC as part of
their management.
It is an unavoidable accoutrement of
professionalism but something needs to be
done to give rugby back to rugby people.
Le Journal de la Coupe de Monde
Les Misérables: You have to feel for
the French. It was meant to be a time of
sporting glory, but instead ‘Les Bleus’ lost
Rugby World Cup’s opening game to Argentina
and then the French footballers went and
lost to Scotland in the European Cup. And
one of the people being blamed is new
president Nicolas Sarkozy because he caused
too much pressure on the ‘Tricolores’ by
influencing the reading, in the dressing
room shortly before the game, of a letter
written by a 17-year-old Resistance fighter
killed by the Nazis. The letter, written by
Guy Moquet before his execution is a
favourite of the French president and was
used to mark his investiture, crying when he
heard it. The decision to read out the
letter was made by Bernard Laporte, who has
been made a junior sports minister, but now
the Communists, the socialists and Guy
Moquet’s biographer have expressed their
outrage and the daily Le Parisien has
questioned whether a letter beginning with
the words “I’m going to die” could have
“undermined the team’s morale.” Of course,
if France had won it would have been
considered an excellent idea!
The game played in heaven: Alan
Adams, writing on the RWC website, provides
proof of rugby’s celestial connections. A
small chapel in southwest France is called
Notre-Dame-du-Rugby. Its four stained glass
windows are proof that rugby is a religion
in the village of Larriviére-Saint-Savin. In
one window, there is the figure of the
Virgin Mary with a small boy in her arms and
a rugby ball is in his hands. At their feet,
players are jumping in a line-out. Behind
the altar is a cabinet with photos of men
who have died on the pitch or of injuries
inflicted during games. A local priest,
Michael Devert, restored the church in the
1960s, and it is attracting an increasing
number of rugby pilgrims to light a candle
and pray for success for their teams.
Ground Zero: That’s what England fans
were calling the Stade de France on Friday
night; many of them aptly dressed in white
jerseys bearing the team sponsor’s logo O2!
For South African fans who have in recent
years endured the gloating on the tube back
from Twickenham to London it was sweet music
on the Metro to hear the Poms whining “I
wanna go home, oh how I wanna go home.”
England’s defeat was their first in Rugby
World Cup action since going down to the
Boks at the same venue in 1999. Friday
night's 36-0 whipping threw up a couple of
humiliating stats. England join Côte
D'Ivoire (1995), Canada (1995), Spain (1999)
and Namibia (2003) as only the fifth team in
world cup history to finish a match
scoreless. They are the only reigning champs
to not trouble the score-keeper in cup
history. The defeat was also England's
heaviest at a World Cup. To add insult to
injury the 79,700 present at Stade de France
to witness England's loss edges the 79,312
who showed up at the same ground for the RWC
2007 opener between France and Argentina
exactly one week before - making it a new
record attendance for a rugby world cup
match in Europe.
The times they are a’changing: The
diesel engine keeps chugging along but the
Catt has reached it’s 9th life. Mike Catt
had a “mare” in the England No 10 and facing
him across the park was Francois Steyn, a
young man who would have been seven years
old when Catt became Jonah Lomu’s road kill
at Newlands in 1995. Os du Randt’s direct
opponent Matt Stevens, yet another South
African playing under an adopted flag, would
have been 12 years old when Os anchored the
Springbok scrum in the 1995 Rugby World Cup
Final.
DAN RETIEF -
SuperRugby.co.za | Monday, 17 September
2007
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