Austin Healey slams rugby authorities over Schalk Burger

Former Leicester Tigers scrum-half Austin Healey has slammed the rugby authorities for their treatment of South African flanker Schalk Burger.

The 26-year-old Springbok will miss Saturday's third Test after picking up an eight-week ban for eye-gouging British & Irish Lions winger Luke Fitzgerald in Pretoria last weekend.

But that is not nearly long enough for Healey – himself no stranger to controversy – who also believes South African coach Peter De Villiers should be punished for apparently defending Burger's actions.

"Eight weeks? I got that for (once) throwing a punch," he said in his column in The Mirror.

"Concussion, a broken nose, stitches, a broken arm or leg, a fractured cheekbone even. These things occur in the course of playing this game but gouging doesn't.

"Gouging is a deliberate act. And it is absolutely and wholly unacceptable."

The 'Leicester Lip', a Lions tourist in 1997 and 2001 added: "When I played, I accepted the injuries and the physical battering I took, which means I will carry a certain amount of physical discomfort around with me for the rest of my life.

"But what I wouldn't accept then and I will not accept now is a deliberate act in which the outcome can be somebody losing their eyesight."

Healey was furious that De Villiers seemed to defend Burger in his post-match press comments by saying rugby was 'not ballet'.

"For Peter de Villiers, the Springboks coach, to make light of Schalk Burger's gouging of Luke Fitzgerald appalls me," he continued.

"For him to say that those who want rugby to be like ballet should go buy a tutu, is beyond belief.

"A few years ago, I got fined for bringing the game into disrepute, while on a Lions tour, for calling someone (Aussie lock Justin Harrison) a plank and a plod and an ape.

"So what are the ramifications of Peter de Villiers' outburst going to be? That's what I want to know. If I get fined £2,000 for calling someone a plank, how much is he going to get fined?"