The Jan-Hendrik Wessels disciplinary controversy has inspired the United Rugby Championship (URC) to question World Rugby about the procedures used by the independent judiciary in the case, CEO Martin Anayi said on Thursday.
Anayi said neutral citing commissioners is one of the issues raised with the global governing body, under whose jurisdiction the disciplinary panels belong.
Citing commissioners from the country hosting the match is standard practice in rugby, even in South Africa.
Bulls front-rower Wessels was banned for nine matches, reduced by one week after an appeal, for allegedly grabbing the genitals of Connacht flank Josh Murphy in their URC match in Galway on October 17.
Murphy was red-carded during the game for striking Wessels on the head.
Irish citing commissioner Peter Ferguson approached Murphy after the game and laid a disciplinary complaint against Wessels based on what the Connacht player told him.
We have referred the matter to World Rugby to make sure the right procedures were followed.
— URC CEO Martin Anayi
The all-Welsh URC disciplinary panel chaired by Declan Goodwin found Wessels guilty and banned him for nine weeks, despite admitting they had no video evidence to confirm Murphy’s allegation.
They based their decision on Ferguson’s opinion, based on what he had seen more than 50m away in the grandstand, and Murphy’s oral evidence, also rescinding the red card against the Irish player, who has been given two other red cards in recent years.
“We have referred the matter to World Rugby to make sure the right procedures were followed. Did we do things correctly? SA Rugby president Mark Alexander is working with us on this.
“As CEO, I don’t get involved in disciplinary hearings because it is an independent process and has been for 10 years,” Anayi said in Johannesburg on Thursday at the announcement of Samsung’s new partnership with the URC and SA Rugby.
“But I do need to make sure the process has been independent. The judicial panel and the citing commissioner are all very experienced and World Rugby mandated. They follow World Rugby regulations.
“One of the questions we’ve asked is whether there should be neutral citing commissioners. That probably has to do with costs. Should the judiciary members be from different countries or are we OK with them all coming from the same country?
“It’s a World Rugby decision to have teams of three from the same country when it comes to the match officials. They want intuition between the officials because their job is super-complicated and under high pressure, and having that understanding helps get the right decisions,” Anayi said.
The URC CEO certainly wants to ensure South African rugby is happy in their new franchise home since exiting Super Rugby in 2020, and he again spoke of the excellent impact our four teams have had on the competition.
“The depth of talent in South Africa is insane and the sort of powerful partnerships announced today with Samsung is why the past five years have been so amazing.
South Africa have added huge diversity to the competition and they have been the leaders in professionalism.
“The Stormers have the highest average attendance of any club team in the world and three out of four finals have been in South Africa. We have grown our audience 30% every year and 53-million people watch on TV, while attendance at the games is up 18% to 1.8-million at the grounds,” Anayi said.
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