In an incident that certainly soured the Springboks’ resounding win over Italy this past weekend, Jasper Wiese was shown a straight red card for what was deemed to be a headbutt on Italian prop Danilo Fischetti.
As part of World Rugby’s ‘new, faster and simpler disciplinary process’ being trialled’, Wiese was one of three international players who faced a disciplinary review on Sunday. However, whereas decisions were handed down for Darcy Graham (Scotland) and Ionut Alexandru Harasim (Romania), this was not the case for the Springbok No 8.
Instead, World Rugby confirmed that the Foul Play Review Committee has decided to refer the matter involving Jasper Wiese to a Disciplinary Committee for a full disciplinary hearing.
The Disciplinary hearing will take place on Tuesday, 15 July 2025.
What could be the reason for this Jasper Wiese deferral?
The new disciplinary process for any player who receives a red card or is cited now works as follows:
- Stage 1: An Independent three-person Foul Play Review Committee will meet remotely within 24 hours of final whistle of the match or match day to assess any relevant incidents and propose a sanction to the player. The incidents the committee will consider will be publicly confirmed by World Rugby ahead of the meeting.
- Stage 2: A player can choose to accept or not accept the proposed sanction within a short timeframe.
- Stage 3: Where the player does not accept the sanction, the matter will be referred to an Independent Disciplinary Committee which will issue a final sanction. The Independent Disciplinary Committee Hearing outcome will be published by World Rugby.
The Foul Play Review Committee may decide to refer matters to the Disciplinary Committee without having reached a decision, for example if the incident is serious, in cases of match official abuse, etc. In those circumstances only, the player may appeal the decision of the Disciplinary Committee to an Appeal Committee.
It may be that the Springboks and Wiese are expected to launch a defence of the incident, but it does seem highly likely that the eightman will be handed a ban for at least a few weeks, especially considering he does have a history of certain foul play incidents.
What did you think of this incident?
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