Length of potential Etzebeth ban for eye gouge revealed as panel fail to agree after five hours

The delay could be bad news for Etzebeth

On Wednesday, the South African was made to wait longer to discover his fate after being sent off in the 73-0 victory against Wales on Saturday.

Etzebeth was shown a straight red by Luc Ramos with only two minutes left to play at the Principality Stadium, with replays showing Etzebeth’s thumb clearly made contact with Mann’s eye. 

South Africa head coach Rassie Erasmus admitted that the incident ‘didn’t look good’ and deserved a red, while others have sprung to Etzebeth’s defence by saying he was provoked by an earlier similar eye-gouge incident from Mann himself. 

Etzebeth now faces a lengthy ban; World Cup guidelines have detailed that the low-end point for intentional contact with an opponent’s eyes is 12 weeks, while the top-end is 24 weeks. However, bans for the most serious eye gouging offences can be up to your years.

It was expected that Etzebeth would learn his fate on Wednesday, but after five hours of deliberation, ending at midnight, reports suggest that the hearing has been deferred to Sunday. 

According to South African outlet Netwerk24, the panel was split over whether Etzebeth’s actions were deliberate or reckless. The delay suggests that the upper-end limits of the ban are being deliberated.

The controversy came at the end of a historic defeat for Wales. They suffered their biggest home loss ever and failed to score in Cardiff for the first time since 1967.

South Africa ran in 11 tries. Fly-half Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu scored twice and kicked nine conversions. The Springboks dominated the scrum, controlled territory, and punished every Welsh mistake

Yellow cards for Taine Plumtree and Aaron Wainwright added to Wales’ problems. The scoreboard continued to rise as South Africa pushed past 50 points shortly after half-time.