All Blacks coach Graham Henry isn’t surprised at the nine-week ban handed down today to South African lock Bakkies Botha for head-butting halfback Jimmy Cowan in the Tri-Nations rugby test in Auckland last night.
“I’m not surprised,” Henry said.
“He’s got a history. He’s probably lucky he didn’t get more than nine weeks.”
Botha’s suspension means he will miss the remainder of the Tri-Nations.
The ban is up to and including September 4, the day the Springboks end their defence of the title with a test against Australia in Bloemfontein.
The punishment was handed down by Sanzar judicial officer Dennis Wheelahan at a hearing in Auckland after Botha was cited for dangerous play.
The 68-Test veteran was cited for striking the back of Cowan’s head in the opening minute of the All Blacks’ 32-12 win.
Irish referee Alan Lewis missed the incident, which happened in a tackle after Cowan had tugged at Botha’s jersey as both were chasing a ball.
Lewis later sinbinned Botha for a professional foul after he had warned the Springboks about persistent infringing.
Henry said Cowan did not appear to have suffered any ill-effects from the blow.
“No, I don’t think so,” he said.
“It was just one of those things that happens in a game which is not part of the game and has been dealt with correctly.”
Wheelahan said Botha admitted the charge, expressed remorse and had apologised to Cowan.
Wheelahan deemed the offence to be in the middle range of seriousness, but he also took into account Botha’s previous record.
The Bulls player missed this year’s Super 14 playoffs after being suspended for a month for dangerous charge on Stormers back Gio Aplon, now a test teammate.
He received a two-week ban for the same offence against the British and Irish Lions last year.
He also missed three weeks of last year’s Super 14 for striking and in 2003 he was suspended for eight weeks after allegedly spitting at, biting and eye-gouging Australian hooker Brendan Cannon.
formeropenside
Guest
Ref was entitled to let the play continue for advantage, and then should have given Cowan a yellow and Bakkies a red.
Katipo
Guest
Stupid behaviour from Bakkies. No brains. Had the referee blown his whistle seconds earlier, as he should have, penalised and yellow carded Jimmy Cowan - another serial bad boy - for his professional fowl & Morne Steyn had kicked the Springboks in to a 3-nil lead; 15 boks v 14 AB's for the following ten minutes, then who knows how that test would have unfolded? Ah, the little things that turn test matches. Sliding doors and all that...
Gary Russell-Sharam
Guest
Obviously there is no excuse for what Bakkies did, I do not condone this in any way. But headbutting the back of someone head is not my idea of inflicting pain I'd rather do it to the front of his head to make my point. And I have to say I would have been pretty p----sed off with Jimmy Cowan if I had been held back by him as Bakkies was and I might have been tempted to meet out some sort of punishment to Cowan during the game. It used to be in my day that you would wait until the next ruck and then do the old tap dance to clear out a bit more vigoriously, that used to have the desired effect to retaliate against any foul play,sadly rucking has been consigned to the not allowed basket. The up-shot is that Bakkies is now cooling his heels for a long while out of the game and probably we will not see him play until the super 15 next year. I'll still lay odds that he will be in the World Cup Side in 2011, he is a talented player aside from his spak attacks.
Ben S
Roar Guru
Can you secretly include something similar in one of your articles, Brett? See if anyone can spot it. This is Mr S, btw. I went ahead and changed it up.
mudskipper
Guest
Usual suspect Bakkies... And he did this in the first minutes of the match... he clearly came out to play dirty and take key players out if he got a chance... I did like to see Bakkies and SBW go ten rounds… That would be worth watching… now he has time and in NZ could it happen?
Brett McKay
Guest
18 weeks over the last season and a half - I don't think anyone's surprised or even disappointed at the length of the ban... Love this reporting though: All Blacks coach Graham Henry isn’t surprised at the nine-week ban handed down today to South African lock Bakkies Botha... “I’m not surprised,” Henry said. Roy & HG would be proud...
JJ
Guest
I don't think anyone is surprised at the ban, but from the comments on here it seems the consensus is that he should have got longer.
Jameswm
Guest
The ridiculous thing was Botha trying to head butt and injure Jimmy Cowan, of all people. He was the Boks' best player, so you'd want him to stay on the field as long as possible.