{"id":299278,"date":"2025-12-04T21:13:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T21:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/299278\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T21:13:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T21:13:07","slug":"south-africas-eben-etzebeth-handed-12-match-ban-for-eye-gouging-against-wales-south-africa-rugby-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/299278\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa\u2019s Eben Etzebeth handed 12-match ban for eye-gouging against Wales | South Africa rugby team"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">South Africa\u2019s Eben Etzebeth has been suspended for 12 matches for eye-gouging against Wales last weekend.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The suspension covers matches for the Durban-based Sharks starting from this weekend to the end of March. The Sharks deregistered Etzebeth this week in anticipation of a lengthy ban.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Etzebeth was sent off on Saturday at the end of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/2025\/nov\/29\/wales-south-africa-autumn-nations-series-rugby-union-match-report\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">record 73-0 win over Wales<\/a> in Cardiff. In a scuffle with Alex Mann Etzebeth was caught on video with his right thumb in Mann\u2019s left eye.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">It was the first red card of Etzebeth\u2019s 13-year international career. The two-time Rugby World Cup winner has played the most Tests for the Springboks, 141. The gouge was determined to be intentional by an independent disciplinary committee. Etzebeth pleaded guilty and apologised.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Regarding a sanction, the panel started at 18 weeks and reduced it by six weeks taking into consideration his previous disciplinary record. He was the third lock to be sent off during the Springboks\u2019 five-match unbeaten tour of Europe in November. Lood de Jager was suspended for four matches but Franco Mostert\u2019s red card was rescinded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Africa\u2019s Eben Etzebeth has been suspended for 12 matches for eye-gouging against Wales last weekend. The suspension&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299279,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-299278","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}