Fouche: It should have been play on.

Last week, Fouche received the ban following a straight red for a tackle on Ulster centre Ben Carson in round 14 of the Vodacom URC.

The suspension rules out the 32-year-old Fouche for the remainder of the Stormers’ URC league campaign.

An SA Rugby magazine poll on Instagram reveals that Fouche was among 505 voters who believed referee Andrea Piardi should have allowed play to continue, placing fault with Carson. Stormers teammates Deon Fourie and Adre Smith agreed with Fouche.

Two-time World Cup winner Duane Vermeulen and Springbok hooker Andre-Hugo Venter joined 484 voters arguing Fouche’s action warranted only a penalty, while Scotland winger Duhan van der Merwe sided with the 40% majority (927 votes) supporting a yellow card.

A URC disciplinary panel found that Fouche breached the law against charging an opponent without attempting to grasp them.

Writing for TimesLIVE, veteran rugby journalist Mark Keohane believes the Stormers leadership has no choice but to challenge Fouche’s conviction, claiming he should never have received a red card, let alone faced further punishment.

Keohane also condemned the TMO’s intervention through frame-by-frame analysis that exaggerated the head contact, and highlighted a bias where defenders face punishment regardless of the ball-carrier’s contribution to dangerous contact.

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Springboks update as Kurt-Lee Arendse forced off in heavy defeat to Kwagga Smith-led Blue Revs

Rassie Erasmus will breathe a sigh of relief after Springboks speedster Kurt-Lee Arendse hobbled off the pitch during the clash against Kwagga Smith’s Blue Revs.

Arendse sustained the injury in the act of scoring during the opening stages of the DynaBoars’ 38-8 loss to the Blue Revs on Saturday.

Kurt-Lee Arendse injury

The Bulls flyer has crossed for seven tries so far this Japan Rugby League One season and looked to have grabbed his eighth in the third minute of the match as he tore through the defence after a lineout.

Arendse initially escaped the tackle of Tongan star Charles Piutau but was still unable to dot down over the line and gingerly got back to his feet.

To add insult to the injury, the try was disallowed on TMO review due to an earlier infringement during the lead-up with hooker Takeshi Hino guilty of dummying his lineout throw.

Arendse attempted to play on but was unable to as he struggled even with his ankle taped up and was eventually replaced in the sixth minute.

While Springboks boss Erasmus will have been concerned with the outside back’s fitness and perhaps even Jake White, as Arendse could still return to the Bulls squad this season, Planet Rugby understands the speedster just twisted his ankle and the injury is not serious.

In his absence, the Blue Revs were ruthless, with Vueti Tupou grabbing the opening try in the 15th minute before some quick thinking from skipper Smith saw him score the home side’s second try off a quickly taken tap from a penalty.

Blue Revs’ season

That gave Smith’s side a 12-3 buffer at half-time, a lead they stretched to 31-3 before the DynaBoars troubled the scoreboard attendants again.

Tupou grabbed his second try after the break while Valynce TeWhare scored one himself after setting up one of the flanker’s tries.

Kakeru Okumura and Kodai Okazaki also grabbed five-pointers for the Blue Revs, who cemented their place in the top four, extending their lead over the Kobelco Kobe Steelers to eight points.

It’s been a memorable campaign so far for the Blue Revs, who finished the 2023/24 season in eighth position, winning just six of their 16 matches – they have already won four more games this term after 14 rounds.

As for the DynaBoars, they still face the threat of potentially featuring in the promotion-relegation fixture, sitting in eighth position with 22 points.

There are just four points between them and the 11th-placed Mie Honda Heat.