Cheetahs coach Hawies Fourie will seek clarity from SA Rugby why play was not halted after wing Rosko Specman appeared to be knocked out in their Currie Cup clash against Western Province in Bloemfontein on Wednesday.

“If a referee sees a player has lost consciousness it is irresponsible for him to let play continue, especially given where Rosko was,” said Fourie of referee Morne Ferreira's alleged dereliction of duty.

“He stood up after the blow and fell against the ruck and later fell over again trying to defend. If we are serious about player welfare that should have been handled differently,” Fourie said.

The sight of Specman, usually a sure and fleet-footed operator, stumbling about in a dazed state made disturbing viewing in a match the hosts ended up winning 24-17.

Specman suffered the blow when he tried to tackle speeding WP left-wing Angelo Davids, but his head appeared to make contact with the opponent's right arm and was knocked back with force. Specman was sent flying backwards, hitting the back of his head on the turf.

The former Blitzboks player tried to get to his feet, but stumbled sideways before using his right arm stop him falling over. Though a medic came onto the field to attend to Specman he had to tread carefully as play was still in the prone player's proximity.

Still referee Ferreira failed to stop play.

Matters could have taken an uglier turn later in the same move after the Cheetahs intercepted and almost scored a try before WP overturned possession. They surged upfield through Rikus Pretorius, but soon Davids was again in possession and again confronted by Specman, who had by then risen to his feet. Thankfully the WP player glided by Specman who again fell to the ground.

With WP closing in on the Cheetahs try line, Specman tried to resume defensive duties but fell to the ground near his own try line.

“Red cards are being dished out when someone's chin has been slightly brushed. Then you get an incident such as this where the player doesn't know what is happening around him with play ongoing in close proximity,” Fourie said.

“The situation should have been handled differently. He lost consciousness and fell around on the field in the aftermath of the hit.

“One has to be careful. Thankfully it was the first time in his career he had been concussed, so there is no history or recent injury that could have made matters worse. It was a serious case and will be treated as such.”

Specman would be put through the normal return to play protocols in his recovery and they will use the usual channels to address the matter with SA Rugby.

“We will communicate with Mark Lawrence who is the head of the referees and makes appointments. After every game we fill in a form and evaluate the referee and if there are special cases where you don't agree with the referee you can send them video clips.

“On that weekly form we will definitely mention it and make the point that this situation could have been handled better and see what they think.”

Specman took to Twitter on Thursday morning, saying “12 years of rugby and suffered my 1st concussion last night. Thank you to everyone for the msgs. The boy is OK. I'll be taking it slow for a bit.”

He went on to say that Davids had his number in the game and “that's the nature of the game … it's all love!”

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