You would think that after eight years the Super12 judicial process would be well and truly sorted out. A few blokes over a couple of beers could pretty quickly come up with something fair and sensible.
So why is it still a bloody shambles?
There should be one judiciary. One panel of experts who give clear consistent punishments for all citings.
Week one saw AJ Venter launch a flying head butt at fellow Springbok Robbie Fleck. Hardly an accident, despite what AJ might say.
He completed the game unpunished and received a four week suspension.
In week two of Super12 the biggest thug in the game, Troy Flavell, stamped on Greg Smiths head. It was completely intentional and totally sickening.
He was given a red card in the game, twelve weeks on the sideline and a smack on the hand.
Aisea Tuilevu made his mark on Friedrich Lombards swede with his knee when he raised it dangerously while running at him. Ten minutes in the sinbin and six weeks on the sideline for this naughty boy.
And finally just this week Hanyane Shimange tried to bury Christian Cullen's head in the Bloemfontein soil, making use of an illegal spear tackle for the task.
He grabbed himself a red card and a two week ban for his efforts.
It's not hard to work out the reason for Taine Randalls outburst recently. He slammed the SARFU judiciary for inconsistency and all but called them corrupt cheats. Strong words.
These penalties don't make sense. Each country is blatantly lenient on their own players. Flavell would be out for the season if he had pulled the same stunt in Durban (Quite possibly justifiably so!). Tuilevu would have received a couple of weeks at most from the NZ judiciary.
The answer seems simple. One judicial panel for all. Surely a hearing can be achieved by means of phone or video conference. I'm sure the collective Union's budgets extend far enough to make use of this technology.
So come on SANZAR, get your bloody act together and do the logical, simple, flamin' obvious thing in time for next years Super12. One judiciary!
