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Van der Merwe picks up ban for fist fight with Springbok rival

Springbok hooker Akker van der Merwe. (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Blues winger Tanielu Tele’a has been suspended for four weeks of Super Rugby, and Sharks hooker Akker van der Merwe for three after governing body SANZAAR announced sanctions handed down by their Foul Play Review Committee.

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Tele’a pleaded guilty to a charge of tackling a player off the ground after he was red-carded during his Auckland side’s 24-9 victory for crashing into airborne Stormers’ winger Dillyn Leyds.

The committee found that the act warranted a suspension of eight weeks, but cut that in half due to his guilty plea and the player’s good judicial record.

Van der Merwe was involved in a fist fight with rival Bulls’ hooker Schalk Brits, for which both players were red-carded in the Pretoria-based side’s 19-16 victory on Saturday.

He pleaded guilty to the offence, which saw the usual six-week sanction cut in half.

Brits has also been charge by the Foul Play Review Committee, but no verdict has yet been reached in his case.

Van der Merwe and Brits are likely rivals for one spot in the South Africa squad for the World Cup in Japan later in the year, with Malcolm Marx and Bongi Mbonambi ahead of them in the pecking order.

AAP

In other news: All Blacks scrum half Aaron Smith pens new deal

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J
JW 2 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Where? I remember saying "unders"? The LNR was formed by the FFR, if I said that in a way that meant the 'pro' side of the game didn't have an equal representation/say as the 'amateur' side (FFR remit) that was not my intent.


But also, as it is the governing body, it also has more responsibility. As long as WR looks at FFR as the running body for rugby in France, that 'power' will remain. If the LNR refuses to govern their clubs use of players to enable a request by FFR (from WR) to ensure it's players are able to compete in International rugby takes place they will simply remove their participation. If the players complain to the France's body, either of their health and safety concerns (through playing too many 'minutes' etc) or that they are not allowed to be part in matches of national interest, my understanding is action can be taken against the LNR like it could be any other body/business. I see where you're coming from now re EPCR and the shake up they gave it, yes, that wasn't meant to be a separate statement to say that FFR can threaten them with EPCR expulsion by itself, simply that it would be a strong repercussion for those teams to be removed (no one would want them after the above).


You keep bringing up these other things I cannot understand why. Again, do you think if the LNR were not acting responsibly they would be able to get away with whatever they want (the attitude of these posters saying "they pay the players")? You may deem what theyre doing currently as being irresponsible but most do not. Countries like New Zealand have not even complained about it because they've never had it different, never got things like windfall TV contracts from France, so they can't complain because theyre not missing out on anything. Sure, if the French kept doing things like withholding million dollar game payments, or causing millions of dollars of devaluation in rights, they these things I'm outlining would be taking place. That's not the case currently however, no one here really cares what the French do. It's upto them to sort themselves out if they're not happy. Now, that said, if they did make it obvious to World Rugby that they were never going to send the French side away (like they possibly did stating their intent to exclude 20 targeted players) in July, well then they would simply be given XV fixtures against tier 2 sides during that window and the FFR would need to do things like the 50/50 revenue split to get big teams visiting in Nov.

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