Schalk gets 4 match ban!
12. Sep, 2007 
7 Comments
Ok, so there I was listening to 567 Talk Radio when I heard Schalk had been banned! 4 weeks for something I don’t even remember? When, what, how did this happen? The only “dangerous’ tackle i remember from the entire game is Brian “The Chiropractor” Lima’s late hit on Andre Pretorius that left himself with a headache and an embarassing 5 minutes on the field. Maybe the citing commissioner felt concussion whilst late tackling with no arms was punishment enough? No citing for Brian but 4 weeks for Schalk – this simply does not make sense.
That Lima Tackle!
But let me not get hung up on the injustices of citing commisioners when it comes to repremanding South Africans. Let’s rather look forward – with glee – to Fridays crunchtime confrontation with those pastey poms. I’m going to be bold and call a 30 point difference. Without Schalk around (even if he wins his appeal they may simply reduce the sentence rather than removing it completely) Wikus van Heerden moves into the match 15 and Bobby onto the bench. Wikus has certainly come to the party this year, in my opinion, and raised his game 10 fold, so even though we might miss that mop of blond hair I don’t think it’ll impact the game one iota.
Another development is Steyn at #12. Mmmmm. Even as a biased Sharks fan I’m a little apprehensive about this move. Let’s hope he plays one of his cracker games rather than crapper games! Yet another blow comes in the form of Sparky out for the season. He broke/cracked his collarbone in a game for thefourths.com last week. So with that Bismaark takes a seat on the bench. More news closer to the game.
isn’t it typical that south african players tend to get the short end of the stick – yet players from the other larger playing nations either don’t get cited at all or get away with mini bans!?
WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP! Lima Decapitates himself and ndre and then walks off the field dazed and confused and thats enough punishment. Conspiracy i tell you!!!!!! They are out to get Schalk and it is a load of BULLSH*T!!!
Completely unacceptable!
Let’s not even start to talk about the darlings of the rugby world New Zealand… who continually get away with murder!
A quote from Yeye on the skySports website:
“I can only say that, in the context of the match, this a shocking and incomprehensible sanction,” Yeye told this website in an interview from the team’s base in Paris.
“If you look at the match in context, you will see there were a number of very dangerous tackles.
“One in particular that stands out is that of [Samoa veteran] Brian Lima [on Springbok replacement André Pretorius],” Yeye said of a second-half incident in which Lima hit Pretorius high and late.
“Now if you look at that tackle [of Lima on Pretorius - which did not result in a citing], I can only say that this [the ban of Burger] is a shocking sanction.
“Yes, we are sitting down with the lawyer now and we are appealing the verdict and the sanction. Schalk [Burger] is a valuable player to us and we are determined to ensure he gets treated fairly,” Yeye added.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=6&click_id=18&art_id=vn20070913073123516C726087
Excellent news article on the whole thing by Mike Greenaway.
Schalk’s ban reduced to 2 matches! Still unfair but at least he’ll now play the 1/4 final!
Lima’s tackle was fair and round the shoulders no problem. it’s a good old fashion tackle haaarrdd i say…..