Wynne Gray: Cowardly act stain on career

Schalk Burger's unsavoury act against the Lions will forever stain his 50th cap for the Springboks. Photo / AP

Mindless acts bookended the Springboks series clincher against the Lions and deflected attention from the rest of the absorbing action at Loftus Versfeld.

There was great courage from the Lions and many players to admire from Rob Kearney, Jamie Roberts, Brian O'Driscoll, Simon Shaw, Gethin Jenkins and Adam Jones. But all the full-throated action has been clouded by the opening and closing segments.

Poor old Ronan O'Gara is probably still with the team shrink after his daft airborne challenge cost the Lions a draw and the chance of squaring the series this weekend.

But the early eye-gouging delivered by Schalk Burger was the most cowardly act, followed by a bizarre defence from his coach Peter de Villiers.

The Springbok coach saw nothing wrong with his flanker's actions until he slightly amended his thoughts after no doubt being heavily "advised" by union officials. Burger's cowardice will forever stain his 50th cap for the Springboks.

Eye-gouging, biting and kicking are the most despicable acts on a rugby field. You can tack on the Hopoate hold if you like, they are all abhorrent. The French expressively call gouging la fourchette while they also describe Hopoate's manouevre as the Christmas Hold. Both actions are prevalent but rarely punished in their club competitions.

It was bizarre at the weekend when Italian captain Sergio Parisse was banned for eight weeks for eye-gouging All Black lock Isaac Ross, that Burger would commit the same offence against the Lions and receive the same penalty.

It was the tenth ban on a player for eye-gouging in the past two years. Before that, there were only three recorded suspensions starting with Richard Loe in 1992, Troy Flavell in 1997 then Richard Nones for his French club side two years later. Munster flanker Alan Quinlan was rubbed out of the Lions tour for eye-gouging and Gloucester prop Olivier Azam was banned for nine weeks this season for the same offence.

Two more sentences this weekend suggest furtive fingerwork has risen in popularity as the weapon of choice for rugby players since authorities clamped down on the more visible pugilistic powers of team enforcers.

Ear-chomping made a brief surge for prominence when Springbok prop Johan le Roux munched on Fitzy's ear in 1992 and English prop Kevin Yates performed similar oral-aural surgery in 1998 while Hopoate's 2001 protological examination technique never caught on.

Now Parisse and Burger have been added to the infamous list of eye-gougers.

The series in South Africa has been a savage contest, far more engrossing than the contests seen either side of the Tasman. The Lions were outwitted in the first test but then blew the second though they should have had a man advantage from the time linesman Bryce Lawrence saw Burger's offence.

Lawrence recommended a yellow card "at least" as language difficulties with French referee Christophe Berdos kicked in. The pair wavered and Burger went to the naughty chair rather than the slammer.

It was a lost chance for the authorities and the Lions. The third strike came when de Villiers made a goose of himself defending his flanker.