Vodacom Bulls’ coach Jake White may have come to the defence of his hooker, Bismarck du Plessis, after his red card against Munster this weekend, but knows in a competition where the margins are so slim, the Bulls simply can’t afford to lose players.
* Get DStv to watch all the URC action *
The team were lucky to get Morne Steyn back from his red card - ironically the last time the team played at Loftus Versfeld - a week early and now they have to contend with another card and another disciplinary hearing.
And given Du Plessis’ red card was perhaps not malicious - as White pointed out - it still looked bad. Given the type of sanctions already dished out for far less crimes, the Bulls will need to have a good argument ready for the URC disciplinary panel this week.
White came to Du Plessis’ defence after the game and admitted it had messed up his plans to use Du Plessis in the Currie Cup showdown with the unbeaten Cell C Sharks this week.
“I was going to start him on Wednesday against the Sharks, so hopefully we will get that sanction sooner rather than later,” White told the media after the game.
“I don’t think it was malicious, I don’t think it was dirty. The reality is that I can’t see that it is a high tackle, hitting someone on the head. At the end of the day, the guy was almost diving over him. He was a bit silly and should’ve held the guy up and just pull him back on the ground.
“But as we said, they came hard at the breakdown, and it’s one of those situations. I hope that common sense will prevail.”
Unfortunately for the Bulls, disciplinary committees have come down hard on red cards thus far in the competition, and Du Plessis is likely to face an uphill battle. While he may have mitigation given how the player climbed over him, in an age where referees look for cards before common sense, he is likely to struggle.
The Bulls have now conceded two red cards and four yellows this season, and have to watch they don’t get the reputation of being a dirty side, something that won’t help given their already patchy relationship with referees in the competition.
White does have a few options for Wednesday night at least, and one of the younger hookers is likely to start. But he lamented the loss of experience that the elderly statesman brought to the side.
“In terms of how it affects me, I’m probably very fortunate in that I’ve got quite a few hookers signed with us. We’ve still got Joe van Zyl, Schalk Erasmus, Sidney Tobias – and Jan-Hendrik Wessels should be back in the next couple of weeks as well.
“You want a guy like Bismarck involved, with his experience and all the tests he’s played. He is too good to do things like that. But I will sort it out with him. I will speak to him, and if we are going to grow as a team, it’s important that players like that must realise that young guys look up to them, and we can’t afford to every week give away a stupid card or play with 14 men.”
“We can’t keep doing that week in and week out. The last time we played here, Morne Steyn got a red card. Again, we were down to 14 men. At this level of rugby, you can’t afford to go down to 14 men.
“We scored two tries, so we weren’t being defensive. But, yes, we made it hard for ourselves. But I have to say, Munster are not an easy team to play against. There’s a reason they are third on the log, and they’re consistently in the top two of the competition.”