©Steve Haag
Barrett received two yellow cards during the encounter – the first for repeated infringements and the second just before the half time for illegal entry into the ruck as he struck South Africa’s Malcolm Marx on the ground.
Having faced an independent judicial committee on Monday, the panel deemed that the second incident did not meet the threshold for a yellow card as Barrett’s initial contact was on the arm of Marx before rising to the neck and hence was cleared of further sanctions.
“New Zealand’s Scott Barrett is free to play after an independent judicial committee decided that his ordering off in the RWC 2023 Warm Up match against South Africa on August 25, 2023 was sufficient and that no further sanction was necessary,” a World Rugby statement read.
“The Committee found that Appendix 4 of Regulation 17 requires the Judicial Committee to apply a sanction for the offence of persistent offending, not for the substantive offences relating to each yellow card (see Regulation 17, Appendix 4, at B.1).
“Appendix 4 at B 2(c) provides that: “The … judicial committee may decide that sending off was sufficient … in the following circumstances … (c) any of the temporary suspensions were awarded for so-called technical offences (including following a team warning) not involving a breach of laws 9.11 to 9.28 inclusive.
“The independent Judicial Committee found that sending off was a sufficient sanction in this case because the player was sent off for two yellow cards (referred to as temporary suspensions in the appendix), and the first of those yellow cards was for a technical offence following a team warning.”
New Zealand will kick-start their Rugby World Cup campaign with a clash against France at the Stade de France on 8th September.
