Bulls hopeful of having Marcell Coetzee red card overturned

Bulls director of Rugby Jake White hopes that sense prevails and Marcell Coetzee is not handed a stiff ban for his red card for a high-tackle against Edinburgh.

Coetzee’s sending off turned the tide of the match against the Bulls and the decision has since been criticised heavily.

Bulls hope for leniency on red card call

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Irish referee Chris Busby ruled that his tackle on Edinburgh prop Pierre Schoeman was high and dangerous with no mitigation although the Bulls would argue that the Scottish side’s frontranker stepped into the tackle.

White added that the Bulls will support their skipper in any way they could.

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“Those are the laws and that is what the protocols are,” White said as reported by Rugby365.

“We just have to ensure we are not on the wrong side of the protocols.

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“We will look at all the factors and hopefully common sense will prevail. Maybe we can argue a case.”

White was diplomatic about the referee’s performance which undoubtedly hurt the Bulls efforts.

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He said the focus for his team would be avoiding getting wrong side of officials in the future.

“The best thing for us is to follow the correct channels and chat to whoever has to be chatted to,” the Bulls boss said.

“We will find out what their interpretations are and why it was seen like that – both ways.

“We are going to have to fix it.

“There is a lot of communication and documentation going out to coaches about head-on-head and that is the way it is.

“We have to ensure we get it right.

“We can’t afford to play with 14 and 13 men in big games like this.”

Great fight

White credited the fight shown by his team who still made a fist of a comeback before a late Ben Healy penalty put the game beyond them.

“Those are the margins,” White said.

“That is what you have to fight for and I am proud that we stayed in the fight.

“At 13-28, it looked like the game was over and we had 14 men on the field.

“However, I have to compliment the players for their fighting spirit and the way they stuck at it.”