Cape Town - Junior Springbok hooker Tiaan van der Merwe has been banned for six weeks after verbally attacking an England player during the recently-completed Junior World Championship.

The incident happened in South Africa's semi-final loss to England when Van der Merwe was cited for a verbal altercation with England lock Joel Kpoku.

Now, after a disciplinary hearing, World Rugby have confirmed the seriousness of the infringement.

World Rugby's findings have confirmed that Van der Merwe used sexually explicit language directed at Kpoku as the Englishman was on his knees preparing to get ready for a scrum.

"It was a serious and gross verbal abuse of a highly-offensive sexual nature in relation to a player’s mother accompanied by a highly offensive sexual gesture," the World Rugby report read.

According to the report, Van der Merwe admitted that he had said: "That is what your mother will look like while sucking my c***", accompanied by a highly-offensive facial gesture imitating a sucking motion directed at the England player.