Kitshoff banned for a week

Cape Town - A SANZAR Judicial Hearing has found Stormers prop Steven Kitshoff guilty of contravening Law 10.4 (e) Dangerous Tackling after he was cited during a Super Rugby match at the weekend.

Kitshoff has been suspended for one week up to and including March 31, 2013.

The incident occurred in the 61st minute of the match between the Stormers and Brumbies at Newlands in Cape Town on Saturday.

In his finding, Adam Casselden ruled that Kitshoff grasped Brumbies flyhalf Matt Toomua around the neck gripping him between both arms in a “headlock” and then brought him to ground, placing Toomua in a vulnerable position and at risk of serious injury.

Casselden found that such a tackle, which usually dictates a suspension of two weeks, was at the "low end".

After taking mitigating factors into account, he ruled that the two week entry point of suspension should be reduced to one week.

Kitshoff will as a result of his ban, miss the Stormers' next Super Rugby match against the Crusaders at Newlands on Saturday. Kick-off is at 19:10.

And all the tip tacklers get off scott free? 

So the hard working Kitshoff gets some enforced rest. Fancy him being the guy who committed the worst infringment last weekend.

It was an unbelievably stupid tackle. And, as usual, Kitshoff struggled in the scrums....yielding 3 penalties. This red headed mountain of a man looks like everybody's idea of a proper prop. The only problem is,  he plays like Deon Carstens.

He made a mountain of tackles and got one wrong- first in the whole season. Worse has not been banned.

Mallet explained why Kitshoff as unfairly penalsied on more than one  occassion.

Very fine loosehead in the making tremendous general play.

Nothing wrong with his general play HasBeen and he will be fine in S15....but not tests, he can't scrum worth a lick. And if looseheads don't apply pressure, your tighthead gets in trouble.

Moz did you see the Stormers destroy the Brumbies scrum! He can scrum just needs to be more wiley. Getting better each year. The tightead was scrumming in as Mallet said. He should have been penalised.

I suppose Cilliers will start at loosehead. Harris on the bench. Harris will be hungry for some game time! Underrated player.

i dont think kitshoof is the best scrummager around, but IMO hes a very good scrummager & his genreal play speaks for itself, a real work horse.

shame to see him get a weeks ban, especially with the saders match coming up.

i do find the ban these teams are getting a little ridiclous though, ardie savea got a months ban for a dangerous tackle and the players in the weekend only get a yellow??? WTF??? o_O

there needs to be proper guideliens with consistent punsihments across the board, cos at the moment its a shambles.

Agreed Kitshoff is a good scrummager and was wrongly penalised this weekend. He and Malherbe had great games and got the better of the Brumbies frontrow that got the better of the Sharks.

The Stormers scrum was aided by the return of the more physical Liebenberg at 2. The Sharks frontrow suffered with Burden at 2 against the Brumbies - Cooper changed that against the Rebels. Its apparent that the starting hooker needs to be around the 110kg mark.

I agree with that conclusion Dave, you need a hooker around 110kgs ....so what about Schalk Brits?

Schalk Brits was your perfect impact player, never a starter at the highest level. The issue with Schalk and the Bok set-up, was that we had Smit as our starter and Bismark on the bench. There was no room for Schalk and rightly so.

Nowdays we have Bismark and Strauss, so again there is no room for him. But if I was touring, Schalk would have been my third hooker as he provides something completely different off the bench.

But Schalk is now in his 30's and his time has passed at test level. Great talent and one who would have made a great impact at test level off the bench, if the game plan lent itself to his attacking style of play.

Seeing him playing for Sarries constantly reminds me of the great player the world stage has missed out on.