Franco Mostert. Alamy Stock Photo

South Africa's Franco Mostert cleared to play Ireland after Italy red card is dismissed

Disciplinary committee found the incident against Italy did not meet the red card threshold.

SOUTH AFRICA LOCK Franco Mostert has been cleared to play against Ireland on Saturday after his red card against Italy was dismissed. 

Mostert appeared before an independent Disciplinary Committee on Tuesday evening. He received a red card against Italy on Saturday last. The card was for a tackle on Paolo Garbisi. It was deemed an offence under rugby’s Law 9.13 – a player must not tackle an opponent early, late or dangerously.  

The independent Disciplinary Committee was chaired by Stephen Hardy (Australia), who was joined by former players Ofisa Tonu’u (New Zealand) and Jamie Corsi (Wales).

The committee decided that there had been head contact and an act of foul play occurred – but it did reach the red card threshold.

They found that “the initial contact made by the player was directly to the shoulder of Italy 10 with there being ‘daylight’ between the shoulder contact and head/neck area of Italy 10.  

“Head contact was then found to have occurred, but was found to be secondary to the initial shoulder contact and made with much lower force and without the requisite level of ‘danger’ required under World Rugby’s Head Contact Process to make the offending reach the red card threshold.”    

The red card has been dismissed and will be expunged from Mostert’s disciplinary record.

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