Eben Etzebeth is expected to appear at a disciplinary hearing on Tuesday after his red card for alleged eye-gouging in the dominant victory against Wales on Saturday, with the Springboks lock potentially facing a long ban. The verdict is likely to be announced on Wednesday.
As South Africa closed in on a record 73-0 victory in Cardiff, Etzebeth clashed with the Welsh backrow Alex Mann, appearing to make contact with Mann’s left eye in a fracas involving several players from both teams.
With two minutes left at the Principality Stadium, the 34-year-old was shown a red card by the referee Luc Ramos after a review by TMO Eric Gauzins. “You have a clear finger in the eye, so for me, it’s a permanent red card,” Ramos said during the review.
A ban would be a blow to Etzebeth’s club, the Sharks, who begin their Champions Cup campaign in Toulouse on Sunday before hosting Saracens in Durban six days later. The maximum ban for making intentional contact with an opponent’s eyes is four years, while an offence at the lowest end of the scale may result in a four-week suspension.
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A mid-range offence could involve an eight-week ban and a top-end offence 12 weeks, with any ban’s length potentially reduced in light of his previously good disciplinary record and other submissions made by Etzebeth’s team.
A number of factors will be considered, including that Etzebeth reportedly apologised to Mann after the match. Should the panel find that Etzebeth intentionally eye-gouged his opponent, however, a long ban seems guaranteed.
“I don’t know what I can say now that won’t be controversial,” South Africa head coach Rassie Erasmus said on Saturday. “It didn’t look good, I think it was a justified red card. How it happened and why it happened, and if he was provoked, I’m not sure. But that’s definitely not the way we would have liked to end the game.”
In January, Springbok winger and Etzebeth’s clubmate, Makazole Mapimpi, was banned for three matches having admitted to making contact with the eye area of an opponent in a URC game against Cardiff. Mapimpi had previously been banned for two weeks for a similar incident involving Bordeaux-Bègles’s Maxime Lucu in 2023.
In April, Glasgow Warriors’s Henco Venter received a six-week ban for making contact with the eye area of Dan Cole in a Champions Cup game against Leicester. Chris Ashton (10-week ban in 2016) and Dylan Hartley (six-month ban in 2007) are other notable names to be punished for similar offences. – Guardian
