Redelinghuis cleared

NAMIBIAN prop forward Johnny Redelinghuis, who received a red card during Namibia’s 54-14 victory against the Ivory Coast on Saturday, has been acquitted by the International Rugby Board.

The referee sent Redelinghuis off midway through the second half after he adjudged that the Namibian had punched an Ivory Coast player after joining a ruck.
At a hearing following the match on Sunday morning, Redelinghuis was acquitted when the match commissioner admitted that the referee had made a mistake and that the video evidence indicated that Redelinghuis had not hit the player.
“We had the hearing on Sunday morning and on the video you can clearly see that I made a tackle on one of the Ivory Coast players and held him up in the tackle. In the struggle I went for the ball and it seemed to the line judge as if I had a swinging arm over the ruck while one of their players joined the ruck and it looked like I hit him over the head. The referee or the touch judge were not involved in the hearing, but the match commissioner said he could clearly see that it was not intentional, so I’m free and I will not be suspended for this coming weekend,” he said.
Redelinghuis has now been cleared to play for his club Wanderers against archrivals United when the second round of the MTC Rugby Premier League competition resumes on Saturday.
Namibia beat the Ivory Coast in a very physical match, with fights breaking out intermittently. Besides Redelinghuis, Namibian prop Marius Visser received a yellow card, while Ivory Coast’s eighthman Bakary Meite, got two yellow cards for fighting. He received his first one when a fight broke out amongst the forwards after only two minutes and then received his second yellow and a red card midway through the second half for headbutting Namibian replacement scrumhalf Eugene Jantjies.
According to Redelinghuis the Namibian team was out to prove a point against the Ivory Coast.
“We were not treated very well in the Ivory Coast, so we had vengeance in our hearts and from the get go, everyone was fired up. When they saw they couldn’t beat us in classic rugby, they started using foul tactics but they even lost the fight,” he said.
Namibia will now face Tunisia in the final African qualifier for the 2011 Rugby World Cup with home and away matches taking place in November.
– www.namibiasport.com.na