URC’s most shameful moment as Wessels ban stands

by | Oct 30, 2025 | African Golf News

It’s time to stand up and find justice in Ireland’s highest court for Jan-Hendrik Wessels, writes MARK KEOHANE.

To SA Rugby CEO Rian Oberholzer and president Mark Alexander, to the Bulls’ CEO Edgar Rathbone and owners Patrice Motsepe and Johann Rupert, you represent a nation that boasts the best players in the world, a national team ranked No 1, and a history of triumph despite isolation. Don’t allow this farce to go unanswered.

Demand:

  • The full publication of the initial hearing and appeal reports.
  • A public review of the URC disciplinary process, especially the reliance on hearsay, lack of video evidence and perceived bias.
  • A clear statement that SA players will not be subjected to double standards.
  • Full accountability for a judiciary panel that ruled on what they felt and not on what their eyes could see because there was nothing to see.
  • A date in Ireland’s highest court.

The initial disciplinary ruling on the Bulls utility front-rower by the URC was a disgrace, and the subsequent appeals decision a sham.

The only thing worse than the original mess is the cover-up masquerading as justice.

MORE: Wessels appeal verdict delivered

In the URC match in Galway, when the Bulls met Connacht, Wessels is alleged to have grabbed Josh Murphy’s genitals.

The Irish player testified at the initial hearing it could have been for five seconds, then said maybe three seconds, then said it definitely happened. He was deemed a credible voice.

Wessels said he didn’t do it. He was deemed uncompelling in his defence because he did not go into any detail on an allegation he said was false.

There was no video evidence but freeze-frame photos from the video footage shown to the match officials, who said they could not see anything and then sent off Murphy for two punches to the head of Wessels.

REVEALED: Images that convicted Jan-Hendrik

Murphy’s red card was rescinded because the panel felt he was warranted in his retaliation, which is against everything the sport has preached and applied for over 100 years.

Retaliation in rugby has always been deemed a greater act of ill-discipline than the act that caused the retaliation.

Now there is a precedent for retaliation. It makes for a lawless sport.

The URC, a late arrival to rugby’s global club competition, only works because of the presence of South Africa’s four franchises.

Yet, it is the South African players who get treated like the ugly stepson, despite being the difference between a world-class league and an insular Celtic League that never succeeded commercially or had any place at club rugby’s global top table.

KEO: Enough is enough

The URC’s leadership has been way too quiet on this. The rugby fans, the public and South Africa, as a rugby country, deserve and demand more than silence and the odd platitude.

Oberholzer and Alexander are a power combination, within rugby’s global administration. Motsepe and Rupert are the two most influential business people in South Africa and on the African continent.

They must act.

The Wessels verdict is not justice. This is an injustice.

Wessels and the Bulls appealed, requesting a fresh hearing (“de novo”), but the appeal panel said no “exceptional circumstances” existed, based on an original finding determined by gut feel and interpretation without any visual video evidence.

They took one week off an original nine-week suspension. They did not reverse the blatantly ridiculous original finding. They tweaked it ever so slightly while effectively saying: “We still believe you’re guilty.” No transparency. No solid evidence. No confidence.

This decision attacks the integrity of the URC and everything it stands for. It attacks the sport.

In more than a century of rugby values, retaliation was never tolerated.  Foul play was punished and players were protected. This has been turned on its head, in a sport so obsessed with protecting the head of a player.

Once again an all-Welsh panel presided as judge, juror and executioner, which is a crime more shameful than the record 18 successive Welsh Test defeats.

If the URC says it values fairness, transparency and consistency, then this case is a proof-point that it is falling short.

 To the URC: you have tarnished your brand and shaken your ethos

To the SA players: you deserve better.

No more.

Photo: Anton Geyser/Gallo Images

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