Jacques Nienaber says the Springboks were forced to leave Jasper Wiese out of the team to face New Zealand this weekend due to a delay in his hearing over a dangerous cleanout against Australia.
News broke on Tuesday morning that Wiese will be appearing before a Sanzaar judicial committee on Tuesday evening after being cited for a dangerous cleanout that earned him a yellow card in the second Test match against Australia this past Saturday.
The 25-year-old was subsequently left out of the Springbok team to play in the 100th Test match against New Zealand in Townsville on Saturday, in one of four changes to the match-day 23.
“Jasper is unfortunately only having his hearing tonight,” Nienaber said while naming the team to face New Zealand. “According to the timeline, it should have happened yesterday.
“For reasons not in our control, it could only happen tonight. So he was not up for selection.”
Nienaber was further pressed over whether certain deadlines were met with regard to the citing and hearing and how it has affected the team.
The Bok coach used the example of New Zealand fullback Jordie Barrett’s citing process for his red card against Australia, as in that case the hearing happened 25 hours after the Test match. Barrett was found not guilty and was available to to play in the rest of the Rugby Championship.
However, the Springboks had their hand forced in this case as the hearing was delayed until after they announced the team to face New Zealand.
“He was cited within the specific and correct time. So we knew he was cited within the correct time,” Nienaber explained. “The issue was with the timeline.
“So, there is a whole time frame of where what should be met. Everything happened according to the time frame that was put out on Friday. In the Barrett incident, his hearing was on the Monday at 5pm. Our hearing should have been on Monday at 5pm. So if the player gets found not guilty, he is still up for selection.
“For some or other reason, the people who had to sit on the judicial committee weren’t available at 5pm on Monday. So the hearing only happens today [Tuesday]. We only have one training and a captain’s run before we play the Test match. So it just made it impossible for us to select Jasper.
“We are not 100% sure why timelines weren’t met with us, but they were met with similar incidents two weeks ago, when Australia played against New Zealand. I am sure Sanzaar will come back to us on that.”
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