
Rugby
Share
Published 17:00 18 Nov 2025 GMT
Updated 17:00 18 Nov 2025 GMT

Safe to say South African fans are not too pleased with Irish rugby at the minute.
A fiery bunch at the best of times, their grievances began last month when Springbok Jan-Hendrik Wessels was given an eight-game ban for the alleged grope of Josh Murphy's testicles when playing for the Bulls against Connacht.
However, despite Murphy's adamant claims, there was no conclusive video evidence that the incident occurred.
Lood de Jager was then handed a four-game ban for a red card tackle against France in South Africa's Autumn Nations Series two weeks ago, while Franco Mostert was sent off for a high hit against Italy last weekend.
Many supporters felt that there was enough mitigation in both incidents for the cards to be yellow, while assistant coach Mzwandile Stick claimed to the media that his team are treated unfairly.
Furthermore, the World Rugby offices are located in Dublin.
All of the incidences caused Springbok supporters to chime in on Sam Prendergast's tackle on Australia's James O'Connor at the weekend, which they felt saw the Irish out-half make contact to O'Connor's head with his shoulder.
However, the referee deemed that it was a legal hit.
Explore more on these topics:
Live sport on TV in Ireland this weekend – Football, GAA and Golf – September 4th – 6th
The Prem is back! Summer might be over, but fear not, there is still plenty of sport to feast your eyes on. As always, the Premier League will provide the main action, but Clubber and TG4 are keeping the GAA club championships lit. On top of that, there is a very special game in Spain […]
Rugby
2 weeks ago
Reports from France say Ronan O’Gara has made up mind on next move
Well that’s that then….. No other head coach in rugby receives the same amount of speculation as La Rochelle head coach Ronan O’Gara. The most recent rumours were links to the head coach job at Leinster, with Leo Cullen leaving at the end of the season. However, reports from France have said that O’Gara is […]
Rugby
2 weeks ago
Andy Farrell disagrees with general consensus of Ireland’s quality
Rugby