JOHANNESBURG, April 9 (Reuters) – The Canterbury Crusaders
have been cleared off all charges of eye-gouging by the Super
Rugby ruling body Sanzar following allegations from the Northern
Bulls after their match at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.
Bulls spokesman Ian Schwartz issued a statement on the
franchise’s website (www.thebulls.co.za) on Monday saying “no
evidence of eye-gouging was found by Sanzar’s judiciary system”.
Bulls hooker Chiliboy Ralepelle and lock Flip van der Merwe
had claimed they were fouled by the Crusaders.
Schwartz said the Bulls would not apologise despite comments
by Crusaders coach Todd Blackadder after the game that he
expected an apology if the allegations were not proven.
“For them to suggest we must now apologise, just because
there is no video evidence available, would mean we have lied,”
he said.
“It is ridiculous to suggest that every time there is a
citing and there is not enough evidence, the other team should
apologise.
“The rules are clear and we applied them 100 percent
correctly. We had the right to raise the matter with the referee
and we accept the fact that there was no video evidence.”
(Reporting by Ken Borland;1 Editing by John Mehaffey)
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