17 Sep 2013

Hooker's red card expunged

8:13 am on 17 September 2013

The South African hooker Bismark du Plessis has had the red card he received during last weekend's match against the All Blacks expunged from his record, after a judicial hearing decided his first yellow card had been wrongly awarded.

French referee Romain Poite was the only person at Eden Park who thought the tackle on Dan Carter was anything but a good, hard hit - apart from a few thousand one-eyed All Blacks fans of course.

Poite ruled the tackle, in which Carter badly injured his shoulder on landing, was high and he didn't use his arms.

The SANZAR judicial officer disagreed, saying the first yellow card was wrong - unfortunate for du Plessis who was sent off early in the second half for a second yellow card after smashing his elbow into the throat of Liam Messam.

Rugby fans will be left wondering what the outcome could have been on Saturday night, had one of the best player on the day not been incorrectly red-carded.

Du Plessis will now be available for the Springboks' last two matches of the Rugby Championship after all.

While Carter's out of the rest of the Rugby Championship, du Plessis is now free to play what's set to be the competition decider at Johannesburg on October the 6th.

The hooker will also be available for the Wallabies home game in Cape Town the previous weekend.