New Zealand prop Ethan de Groot was suspended for three Rugby World Cup games on Monday for his red card against Namibia.
He will miss the All Blacks' last Pool A games in Lyon against Italy on Sept. 29 and Uruguay on Oct. 5. The ban covers the quarterfinals if New Zealand make it there, but he will be available subject to him completing tackle school.
De Groot made contact with the head of Namibia's Adriaan Booysen and was yellow-carded on Friday in Toulouse. But the card was upgraded to red after a bunker review for charging Booysen without attempting to wrap him.
At his judiciary hearing, de Groot admitted to foul play and didn't think it was worthy of a red card.
But the panel said de Groot could have lowered his tackle, which was dangerous and always illegal. The panel’s sanction started at six weeks and was halved because of the prop’s good disciplinary record.
De Groot scored a try in the 71-3 win. Booysen suffered a shoulder injury.
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3 Comments
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Gahan
Incorrect - he was banned for TWO games. It should never have been a RC though. It was clearly a shoulder to shoulder contact which then slipped up to the head. Once again World Rugby and their disciplinary committee have made a pig's ear of the whole thing.
K3PO
That's another game where NZ is down to 14 players and you can't win a tournament under-resourced.
fatrainfallingintheforest
It's lucky the French player only got a yellow for what was an exact replica of de Groot's tackle in their game against Uruguay, or else World Rugby would have been forced to address their absolute inconsistency and bias.