{"id":223242,"date":"2025-12-09T07:07:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T07:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/223242\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T07:07:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T07:07:08","slug":"moore-confused-by-world-rugbys-disciplinary-process-after-etzebeth-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/223242\/","title":{"rendered":"Moore ‘confused’ by World Rugby’s disciplinary process after Etzebeth ban"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former England and British & Irish Lions hooker Brian Moore admits to being puzzled by World Rugby\u2019s disciplinary process after Springboks lock Eben Etzebeth recently received a 12-match suspension for foul play.<\/b><\/p>\n

Etzebeth was suspended on Thursday after he was found to have \u2018intentionally\u2019 eye-gouged Wales flanker Alex Mann during a Autumn Nations Series Test in Cardiff on November 29.<\/p>\n

The Springboks<\/a>\u2018 most capped Test player will spend the next few months on the sidelines and miss most of the Sharks\u2019 season after the panel deemed that he committed a mid-range offence.<\/p>\n

Etzebeth<\/a> initially received an 18-week suspension which was reduced by six weeks after factors such as his previous record were taken into consideration.<\/p>\n

Etzebeth won\u2019t miss any Springboks Tests<\/p>\n

It has subsequently been revealed that the 34-year-old will take up a coaching role with the Sharks while serving his suspension, which only covers club fixtures and not any Springboks Tests.<\/p>\n

Etzebeth\u2019s suspension has led to widespread debate in the game with many fans believing the punishment was too light while there have also been questions over how the length of his suspension was decided.<\/p>\n

Writing in his Telegraph<\/a> column, Moore<\/a> revealed that he is not \u201cunfamiliar with the way things work\u201d in rugby\u2019s disciplinary process as he has served suspensions for foul play during his time as a player and also \u201crepresented a number of players as part of my law practice\u201d after he retired as a player.<\/p>\n

Moore admitted that despite his knowledge of rugby\u2019s disciplinary process, he is \u201calmost as confused as everybody else as to what level of sanction is applied to what offence\u201d in the modern game.<\/p>\n

The 63-year-old urged World Rugby to clarify how their disciplinary system works and revealed that \u201cthere is a widespread feeling that the bigger and better teams get favours that are denied your average player.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eben Etzebeth \u2018devastated\u2019 after eye-gouging ban as Sharks put Springboks lock to work<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Moore also revealed that in most cases the outcomes at hearings depended on who defends the players who are facing disciplinary action.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is certainly true is that the ultimate outcome of a disciplinary hearing very much depends on what legal representation you can afford, which should not be a factor but undoubtedly is,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is for this reason that with any touring party or any World Cup squad, one of the most important choices is which legal counsel you take with you. The difference between an in-tournament ban of one game or three can have a very real influence on how your side fares.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moore also questioned Etzebeth\u2019s defence which revealed that he had to defend himself after fearing that he would be rag-dolled by Mann and suggested that that was a bid to \u201cto manipulate the system\u201d from the Boks enforcer and his legal team.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the recent Eben Etzebeth case, a 12-week ban for gouging was handed down by a panel that included Leon Lloyd, a former professional player and a very bright man, and someone who knows how players and their representatives try to manipulate the system,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\u2018I don\u2019t believe that Etzebeth is afraid of anybody\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cEtzebeth\u2019s claim was that he genuinely thought that he was about to be \u201crag-dolled\u201d by Wales\u2019 Alex Mann and therefore reacted as he did. I don\u2019t believe that Etzebeth is afraid of anybody and in a set-to between those two players there would only be one winner, and that man wouldn\u2019t be wearing a red shirt. It is far more likely that Etzebeth was angry with the confrontation and determined to sort it out.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis view of the offence bears out the finding that his act was intentional and Etzebeth was not acting in self-defence in any meaningful way. The vague notion of provocation was only marginally relevant, hence Etzebeth was not given the now customary discount of 50 per cent off his sentence.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Moore did not have a problem with Etzebeth\u2019s previous disciplinary record being taken into account when his suspension was decided, he agrees with most fans who are unhappy that the player will not miss any Springboks matches and will now help with coaching the Sharks\u2019 junior teams during his ban.<\/p>\n

\u201cCredit was rightly given for this being the first red card in Etzebeth\u2019s 141-cap Test career, but the fact is that the ban will have no effect on his international career,\u201d Moore added.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat really does not sit right with most rugby fans is that Etzebeth has been able to move from being a Sharks\u2019 player to one of their coaches whilst he is serving his ban. That sort of loophole is something that World Rugby should consider closing immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Eben Etzebeth fate revealed as Springboks star learns punishment for eye-gouge against Wales<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former England and British & Irish Lions hooker Brian Moore admits to being puzzled by World Rugby\u2019s disciplinary…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223243,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[18,794,19,34943,17,5,5258,132,17331],"class_list":{"0":"post-223242","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-home-page","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-internationals","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-south-africa","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115688350967066289","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}