Botha citing dismissed

THE citing charge against Munster prop BJ Botha arising from an incident in the Rabo-Direct PRO12 League game against Ospreys earlier this month has been dismissed.

A disciplinary hearing in Edinburgh yesterday threw out the charge against the South African of “striking with the head”. A committee chaired by Paul Minto (Scotland), found he had no case to answer, explaining: “[The] Munster tighthead prop BJ Botha was cleared of foul play having been cited by the independent citing commissioner. An independent committee considered the video evidence.... and found that, on the balance of probabilities, the incident that was cited was not an act of foul play under Law 10.4 (a). The Committee was not satisfied that the citing complaint could be upheld.”

Botha was accompanied at the hearing in Edinburgh by Munster chief executive Garret Fitzgerald and team manager Shaun Payne. “We are delighted at the result and felt he received a very fair hearing,” said Fitzgerald.