All Blacks breath sigh of relief after Barrett was cleared to play following red card against the Springboks

The All Blacks are counting their lucky stars after veteran lock Scott Barret has been cleared to play with immediate effect following his double yellow card that led to a red card over the weekend in the All Blacks’ 35-7 heavy loss to the Springboks in their Rugby World Cup warm-up match last Friday.

The independent judicial committee decided that Barret’s red card was sufficient and that no further sanction was necessary.

The Committee determined that the Judicial Committee must impose a penalty for persistent offences as stipulated in Appendix 4 of Regulation 17.

All Blacks head coach Ian Foster says the facts are that he got a yellow card, the first of which was not for foul play.

He says the second yellow card was just a yellow card, so it wasn’t a red card

Foster says the judiciary, fortunately, doesn’t judge people on the reaction of people on the opposition, they judge it on the facts.

The All Blacks will now head to France to prepare for the RWC.

Their first RWC pool clash is against hosts France at 7.15am on the 9th of next month.

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