In a time when World Rugby is doing everything it can to eradicate serious head and neck injuries from the sport, Cheslin Kolbe can probably consider himself a bit lucky to only get a yellow card here.
The South African received his marching orders in the first half of the clash against Ireland after lifting Mack Hansen above the horizontal and driving him into the ground. It was a nasty incident, although the referee decided that there was not enough force involved to send him off.
Instead, he was sent to the sin bin.
YELLOW CARD 🟨
Cheslin Kolbe sent to the bin for a dangerous challenge on Mack Hansen.#IREvSA | #ANS pic.twitter.com/09WJj8z3w5— Virgin Media Sport (@VMSportIE) November 5, 2022
While some feel that this was the correct decision, others felt that the player got away lightly.
Simon Zebo felt Cheslin Kolbe lucky to avoid red card
Simon Zebo is of the opinion the fullback was incredibly lucky to be allowed to return to the pitch.
Speaking while on punditry duties on Amazon Prime, the Munster man said that tackles such as this one have to be stamped out of the game, while Bryan Habana also admitted that his compatriot was lucky to avoid a harsher punishment.
Zebo: It's incredibly dangerous. Anything that goes above the horizontal, whether he meant to do it or not, if Mack Hansen's neck was six inches to the right he was in big trouble.
We're trying to eradicate these kinds of tackles with harsher punishments. That should have been a red card.
Habana: When you're in that position on the field, it's hard to see what's happening. Was there a hand on the ground (from Hansen) or was it head first? If it was head first then it's a red card.
That causes that you don't go on your neck and only on your back. He is potentially lucky. You could see a clear lift on the knee from Cheslin and he is a bit lucky with the yellow.
They certainly had a point.
South Africa coped well with the absence of Cheslin Kolbe for the ten minutes he was off the pitch, although it likely would have been a different story had he been unavailable for the remainder of the game.
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