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Namibia captain receives lengthy ban after Dupont tackle
By Josh Raisey
Namibia captain Johan Deysel’s World Cup is over after the centre was handed a five week ban for his dangerous tackle on France captain Antoine Dupont last Thursday.
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Deysel fractured Dupont’s cheekbone in a clash of heads in the second-half in Marseille, which resulted in the Namibian being red carded.
After a hearing before an independent disciplinary committee, where the 32-year-old was charged with contravening Law 9.13, he has been banned for twelve weeks. Due to his good disciplinary record and apology, the ban has been halved and will have a further week taken off it should he take part in the World Rugby Coaching Intervention Programme.
As Namibia only have one match remaining, against Uruguay, and cannot qualify for the knockout stages of the World Cup, the ban ends his tournament entirely.
A World Rugby statement reads: “Namibia’s Johan Deysel attended an independent Disciplinary Committee hearing for an offence contrary to Law 9.13 (dangerous tackle) as a result of a review by the Foul Play Review Official in Namibia’s Rugby World Cup 2023 Pool A match against France on 21 September.
“The independent Disciplinary Committee was chaired by Adam Casselden SC (Australia), joined by former international referees Donal Courtney (Ireland) and Juan Pablo Spirandelli (Argentina).
“The player accepted that foul play had occurred and that the offence warranted a red card.
“Having considered all the available evidence, the submissions by the player and his representative, the independent Committee categorised the act of foul play as being at the top end of the scale of seriousness of offending, having regard to the degree of recklessness involved in the offending, the vulnerability of the victim player and the significant injury to him. Applying Appendix 1 to Regulation 17, the independent Committee determined that the applicable entry point is 12 matches.
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“Having considered the mitigating factors, including admission of foul play and correctness of the red card at the first opportunity, his disciplinary record and apology to the player, the independent Committee reduced the sanction by the maximum mitigation of 50 per cent. The final sanction of six matches is to be applied as follows:
“Uruguay v Namibia – 27 September
“Subsequent playing schedule to be determined.”
at least they showed some sence and gave him 5 weeks
Except that if he'd been an England player he'd have received 3 weeks maximum. There's no consistency, only contempt for the so called "minnows".
12 weeks!? Just for being from a tier 3 nation? Why does everyone else start at 6 weeks?
I’m sorry for Deysel.
Had it been anybody else than Dupont, ban would have been I believe far shorter.
It was clearly unintentional. When you compare with violent ruck clear outs which get a 4 to 6 weeks, 12 as a base punishment seems out of order to me.
And I’m French by the way..
je suis d'accord avec vous. Egalement français.
If Deysel played for a tier one country it would probably be two weeks and tackle school. Typical world rugby punishing the lower nations.
I know it wasn't intentional. And Deysel did show remorse afterwards.
But this has to be the low point of this world cup so far (and hopefully there will be no lower point before it ends).
Dupont is the best player in the tournament and he is a big loss, not just to France but to all rugby fans.
Maybe you're right about Dupont being the best player and maybe you're not. But it's irrelevant; the punishment should not be determined by the importance of person who got hurt.
Plenty of low points for this World Cup already. 2019 was head and shoulders above this crappy tournament. Deysel’s ban is indicative of World Rugby’s dubious management of the game. Quality of rugby has been piss poor. Quality of reffing is embarrassing. Organization has been typically French. Quality of “fans” pathetic. Players get injured, deal with it.