Disgraceful URC ruling against Wessels must be challenged

SOUTH African rugby and the United Rugby Championship have enjoyed a protracted honeymoon over the last three years or so, but the disgraceful handling of the Jan-Hendrik Wessels affair has ended that.

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It is time for the heavyweight administrators of the game in this country to roll up their sleeves and demand justice after a disgraceful initial hearing into the allegation of genital grabbing was followed up by an appeal hearing that was emasculated — if you will pardon the expression — of any purpose to find the truth. They more or less covered up the findings of the first hearing.

SA Rugby, the Bulls, and their financiers Patrice Motsepe and Johann Rupert, must take this farce to the Council for Arbitration in Sport, because a few simple facts remain — firstly, there remains no evidence to convict Wessels of molesting Connacht’s Josh Murphy during a ruck; secondly, it is Wessels’ word against that of Murphy.

The latter says that Wessels grabbed him in the genitals; the former emphatically denies it.

There are stills from the television coverage that show Wessels’ arm stretching toward Murphy’s lower body. But Wessels says this was because he was trying to free his trapped leg.

Anyone who has played rugby knows that a ruck is a tangle of limbs — heads, hands, and boots end up in all kinds of positions.