Following their Super Rugby title win, young Chiefs prop Ben Tameifuna was cited for a high tackle he made on Ryan Kankowski early in the second half of the final. The incident was not picked up by the referee or his assistants at the time.
One of the key factors in the Chiefs win over the Sharks was that they took it to the visitors. At times it wasn’t legal, but for the most part they got the better of the physical battle against a formidable group of Springbok players.
One of the hits from Tameifuna went a bit high though, connecting with Shark Kankowski’s chin. Tameifuna has been cited for foul play as he contravened Law 10.4 (e), Dangerous Tackling.
The Citing Commisioner reviewed the video footage and deemed the incident to have met the red card threshold, leading to further inspection by SANZAR Judicial Office Nicholas Davidson.
Kankowski came away from the tackle unscathed. He is taking up a six-month deal to play rugby in Japan, so was excluded from the 30-man Springbok squad for the Rugby Championship. Coach Heyneke Meyer has said that they are working on a way to include him at a later date.
“It’s a tricky situation for us. I did look at Ryan and I think he is probably playing the best rugby of his life. We spoke to Ryan, and it was just quite difficult for him to be selected right now.
“So he wasn’t selected for this test series (against Argentina), but we spoke this morning and we are still in contact, and hopefully he will be available going forward,” Meyer said.
Young tighthead Tameifuna, who usually weighs over 130kg’s, trained with the All Blacks for the series against Ireland recently, but has not made their Rugby Championship squad.
Do you think he should be suspended for this tackle? Let us know in the comments below.
UPDATE 07/08/12: Tameifuna has been suspended for one week. He will miss a scheduled pre ITM Cup warm-up match.
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