The Bulls fell to their first defeat of the URC season as the Scarlets capitalised on Johan Grobbelaar’s red card to seal a 23-22 victory.

Grobbelaar, who made his Springboks debut in July against Portugal, was given his marching orders in the 66th minute of the clash against the Welsh outfit after his collision with Scarlets’ hooker Marnus van der Merwe.

Van der Merwe evaded a tackle before falling into the tackle of Grobbelaar resulting in the send-off that has been largely criticised on social media.

It is also the second red card for the Bulls following David Kriel’s sending-off against the Ospreys last week which was rescinded by a judicial panel.

Grobbelaar’s red card

The incident occurred after the Scarlets managed to steal a lineout off of Grobbelaar’s throw with Van der Merwe scooping up the ball and evading the first tackle before thundering into the Bulls hooker.

After stopping the play because of the Scarlets hooker’s injury, referee Federico Vedovelli issued the red card to the Bulls hooker having consulted with his assistants and TMO Stefano Penne.

During the broadcast, one of the commentators stated that he says “that was a harsh call, there were a lot of moving parts” and many onlookers agreed with that summation.

South African journalist Brenden Nel remarked the following on social media platform X: “No wonder players don’t know what is a red card and what not anymore. Johan Grobbelaar given a red for a very innocuous tackle, that didn’t even have clear evidence of head contact. Boeta Chamberlain hit in the head and referee ignores. What a joke.”

Hugo Gordon added: “That’s a soft-ish red card decision against the Bulls in my opinion – Grobbelaar undoubtedly too high but arguably not coming in with a huge amount of force. But Scarlets with a huge opportunity now.”

While another believed it was “a laughable decision for a red card on Johan Grobbelaar.

Sam Lousi’s tackle escapes punishment

Meanwhile, others raised the issue of Tongan lock Sam Lousi’s no-arms tackle on Cobus Wiese which was overlooked by the officials.

Ahead of the clash, Bulls boss Jake White hailed the URC’s judiciary panel after Kriel’s red card against the Ospreys was rescinded and will hope that he will get a similar result with his hooker in this time around.

Springboks boss Rassie Erasmus might hope so too as Grobbelaar is likely to be included in the squad for the November internationals.

The Bulls have one final tour match before the international break as they head over to Italy where they will face Benetton.