Bismarck du Plessis wanted 'to hurt' Dan Carter, says older brother who is a Doctor

Georgina Robinson

Rampaging bull: Springboks hooker Bismarck du Plessis.

Rampaging Springboks hooker Bismarck du Plessis may not be starting against the Wallabies this weekend but he will still want to "hurt" them.

Du Plessis' older brother Jannie, who will start at tighthead prop this Saturday, warned that his hooking sibling had a point to prove after being controversially red-carded against the All Blacks in Auckland last week.

"I know that if he gets two minutes he'll fire, because after 80 minutes against the All Blacks he felt responsible for letting the team down," du Plessis said.

"I know he never intended to injure somebody and he never intended to be malicious, but he did intend to hurt him, if I can say that." (Now the truth is at last out - YES WE KNOW Doctor)

The red card was later withdrawn against Bismarck du Plessis after one of his two yellow-card offences - a tackled on Dan Carter - was ruled to be within the laws of the game.

But the second offence, an elbow in the throat of All Blacks back rower Liam Messam, was upheld.

Springboks coach Heyneke Meyer has maintained the selection of Adriaan Strauss at No.2 on the weekend, relegating du Plessis to the bench, was his stated intention from the start of the Rugby Championship and had nothing to do with last week's incidents.

But Jannie du Plessis said his brother was still hurting almost a week after the All Blacks match and would play "out of his skin" if given the opportunity off the bench against the Wallabies.

"We do play a physical sport, you want to impose yourself physically on your opponent, but I don't think there was any malice in it and I don't think it was anything sinister," he said.

"Getting red carded, I know he really feels responsible for not only letting the team down but the whole of South Africa, because we knew how important that game was for us.

"From his point of view, he would really want to come on and play out of his skin and really make a big difference."

The veteran prop and qualified doctor will play his 50th Test match at Newlands. The Springboks are running second to New Zealand on the Rugby Championship ladder and need a bonus-point win this weekend to stay in touch ahead of the deciding match in Johannesburg next week.

He said he expected Australia to hit their stride at set piece at some point after struggling to adapt to the new laws, which came in for the Rugby Championship.

"It's happened to us in the past as well, in 2009 our pack were more or less the same people, people I really respect and really rate, but we struggled," du Plessis said.

"I recall a game against Leicester where we really got smashed. The guys who played that day were really capable players, so sometimes you just need the flow or the rhythm and the pack needs to play together.

"I think it's just a few things they have to tweak and they know what to work on and they'll probably sort it out."

South Africa: Zane Kirchner; Willie le Roux, JJ Engelbrecht, Jean de Villiers (capt), Bryan Habana; Morne Steyn, Fourie du Preez; Duane Vermeulen, Willem Alberts, Francois Louw; Flip van der Merwe, Eben Etzebeth; Jannie du Plessis, Adriaan Strauss, Tendai Mtawarira. Reserves: Bismarck du Plessis, Gurthro Steenkamp, Coenie Oosthuizen, Juandre Kruger, Siya Kolisi, Ruan Pienaar, Patrick Lambie, Jan Serfontein

hakwa

What crap is this?   You highlight something and left out the most essential part of the sentence - namely that he never intended to injure Carter.   A hard tackle like Bismarck did  can hurt a player without injuring him - making any player concerned more careful insofar as the rest of the game is concerned.

Your weird talk about the whole incident is indeed rubbish.  It happened nearly two weeks ago and all your allegations have been debunked before.   The Springboks played more than 50 minutes without a player and lost badly and no further story will only serve to try and cause problems where there should be none.  

Cloudy

Any talk in the NZ change room without substance is merely talk - there could be no reason to think that it was anything more than conjecture.

IS THERE  A LAW THAT SAYS CARTER MY NOT BE TACKLED LEGALLY?     

Support: Ewen McKenzie could do a lot worse than have Laurie Fisher on his staff. Photo: Getty Images

WHEN I noted last week that the Springboks have accumulated 79 yellow cards since the card system began, many of them for thuggish play and twice as many cards as the Wallabies, the team's supporters went mad.

Their trolls ranged from the weird ('… Your biased and twisted view of South Africans is very clear for everyone to see. It borders on severe prejudice [other minorities would actually call it racism but I won't go there] … stick to soccer mate - it's clearly your game.') to the deranged ('Stop acting the c---, Spiros. Get a life or f--- off. And your latest mug shot makes you like you're wearing a cheap wig - I'd get it changed if I were you').

An important article written for SA SuperSport website by Brendan Nel, the voice of the Afrikaans rugby polity, makes it clear that the supporters are in a different space on the thuggery issue to that of the team's coach, Heyneke Meyer.

Nel writes: 'The Boks have been their own worst enemies and have deserved the tag of a brutal, bully team at times, one that goes outside the bounds of the law when they don't get their way.'

Meyer, Nel explains, has appointed Chean Roux as a technical analyst to work out how the Springboks can make 'an inward change' to their thuggish approach to the game.

Somehow I knew ol Homowa would bring this horseshit to the board … sniveling all the way … with snotty nose and a trembling lower lip to boot.

If Carter can’t take it he should rather go do something else.

And if Homowa gets too emotional with all the violence and aggression and physicality of rugby, perhaps he should rather take his little powder puff and pom poms and go support the local synchronized swimming team.

What a baby!!!!

hakwa

I did not disagree with the article - I merely said that you distorted the whole impact of what was said completely.   It is a fact of life that a hard tackle can hurt a player - that does not mean that it is the same as cause injury to a player.    Any hard tackle could and would hurt a player - after all they are not made of steel.   A hurt player may be more careful if he stays on the field of play and may do things differently - by being more careful to avoid another hard tackle - later in the game.

Please get into you head - the tackle of Carter by Bismarck was a legal tackle and he was not off-side.   That was the reason for the expulsion of the Red card by the IRB.   Furthermore Carter said the injury resulted from him falling awkwardly - not from the tackle  itself .   The only one who discredited himself was Read in lying to the referee by his "no arms" comment

Sniff … sniff ….sob … sob …  I’m sooooooo cwoss with dat nasty Bismarck coz he was a wittle too ruff wiff Danny … ???

I’m going to take my wittle teddy weddy and go to my wroom and go cwry my wittle eyes out …

Maybe mommy will come and make wittle ol me fweel a wittle better with a glass of warm milkies … kiss me on the chweek and tell me that we managed to get that nasty wasty Bismarck off the field … and that I’m not to feel sad and afraid any more …

Hope I don’t have that nasty nightmare about old Bismarck again. Hope he's not under my beddie weds  ... sob ... sob ... sniff ... sniff ... Where’s my pacifier … ???

 hakwa

So nobody may tackle Carter because he may get hurt in the process?   That is the crux of the matter.   Stop whining and accept the matter as happened.   What about the tackles of Retallick and Nonu - both highly illegal and dangerous ?   Nobody is moaning about that - because the tackled players did not put in a Hollywood act.   So please forget about the Biswmark one.

Apparently the psychologists are hard at work in New Zealand. The pain is almost palpable in this montage.