Watch every second of the 2026 Super Rugby Pacific season live and on demand via Stan Sport.<\/a><\/p>\nThe prop, who had come on as a replacement late in the first half, was found to have dangerously cleaned out a Crusader at ruck time as they looked to get off their goal-line<\/p>\n
It was cleared at the time, however, Super Rugby Pacific confirmed on Monday that Botha will face questioning by the Foul Play Review Committee.<\/p>\n
Botha has been one of the more consistent starters for the Waratahs, starting eight games in 2026 following Taniela Tupou’s departure.<\/p>\n
If suspended, Siosifa Amone would likely retain his spot in the starting side, with Fijian-born prop Apolosi Ranawi the leading option to replace Botha in the 23.<\/p>\n
Ranawai featured heavily in their Super Rugby AUS success behind Botha and Amone, helping them to the title.<\/p>\n
The citing comes at an awkward time for the Waratahs, sitting in eighth on the ladder, four points behind the sixth-place Queensland Reds.<\/p>\n
They will face the Western Force, Highlanders and Fijian Drua in the coming weeks, all fighting to leap inside the top six.<\/p>\n
Coach Dan McKellar is set to receive a boost, confirming Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii is expected to be fit to play on Friday against the Force.<\/p>\n
“He’s a player we’ve missed. In the 23 games (we’ve played), he’s played eight since he’s been here,\u201d McKellar said.<\/p>\n
“I hope we can turn that around to help us achieve what we want to achieve.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NSW Waratahs\u2019 finals hopes have taken a blow with prop Dan Botha facing suspension following their defeat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":632880,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,29897,32951,760,85,48013],"class_list":{"0":"post-632879","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-crusaders","11":"tag-nsw-waratahs","12":"tag-rugby","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-super-rugby-pacific"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=632879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}