Stormers star CITED for tackle Nick Mallett said wasn’t even a YELLOW!

The Stormers have received bad news with confirmation that centre Ruhan Nel has been cited for his tackle on Connacht flyhalf Conor Fitzgerald in their United Rugby Championship (URC) match last Saturday.

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Nel was handed one of two yellow cards shown to the Stormers late in the second half of their 19-17 defeat in Galway when Scottish referee Ben Blain deemed Nel’s tackle on Fitzgerald was dangerous as it made head contact, although it was mitigated by Fitzgerald’s “drop in height”.

Irish citing commissioner Ed Kenny disagreed with Blain stating in his report that there was “no sudden/significant drop in height” from Fitzgerald.

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“After [Fitzgerald] has passed the ball, [Nel] executes an upright and dominant tackle. [Nel] turns his head significantly to his left which makes his right shoulder prominent and he leads into the contact with his right shoulder. The right shoulder makes initial contact to the upper chest and left shoulder of [Fitzgerald] before making contact to the jaw area.

“I believe that this was an act of foul play which was the fault of [Nel] and avoidable. [Fitzgerald] is in an upright position at the time of the tackle from [Nel]. The contact from the right shoulder of [Nel] to the jaw area of [Fitzgerald] is with sufficient force to lead to a high degree of danger. There is head contact, an act of foul play from [Nel] and a high degree of danger.

“There is no change in direction from [Fitzgerald] and no sudden/significant drop in height.

“Following the game, [Fitzgerald] stated he felt contact around his shoulders and low jaw. [Fitzgerald] left the field for a HIA. He passed the HIA but he did not return to play a further part in the game. I believe the actions of [Nel] meet the red card threshold and I therefore cite [Nel] under Law 9.13 for a dangerous tackle on [Fitzgerald].”

As reported by The South African website, former Springbok coach Nick Mallett, speaking in the SuperSport studios post-match, was criticial on Blain’s performance with the whistle in the match – and didn’t feel Nel deserved a yellow card, let alone a red-card-deemed citing.

“When you see how enthusiastically he blew his whistle when the Stormers made a mistake and how he rued blowing his whistle when Connacht made a mistake, it wasn’t surprising to know who he wanted to win,” Mallett said.

According to Mallett, all the 50/50 calls appeared to go Connacht’s way.

Mallett added that it was “ridiculous” that Nel was yellow carded.

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The Stormers – through skipper Stephen Kitshoff and coach John Dobson – expressed their frustration with Blain’s officiating after yellow cards to Nel and Sergeal Petersen allowed Connacht to overcome a 17-7 deficit.

Stormers slipped to 9th in the log after the loss

The defeat saw the Stormers slip behind the Sharks to ninth in the URC standings with 24 points from 10 (of 18) matches.

The Stormers will next be in action against bottom side Zebre Parma at the Danie Craven Stadium in Stellenbosch on Sunday, 13 March at 18:05.

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That match will be followed by a string of home clashes against Cardiff, Ulster, Ospreys, Bulls, Glasgow Warriors and Leinster before the Cape side wrap up their commitments away against Scarlets.

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