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Chiefs midfielder gets six-week ban for high shot
WELLINGTON, July 15, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Waikato Chiefs midfielder Johnny Fa’auli
was suspended for six weeks on Sunday after a dangerous tackle, ruling him out of
the Super Rugby play-offs.
Fa’auli was sent off after a high shot floored his opposite Wes Goosen during
Friday’s match against the Wellington Hurricanes to determine fourth and fifth
placings ahead of the tournament’s knock-out phase.
He appeared before a judicial committee on Sunday evening where his history of
dangerous tackles counted against him.
Two weeks was added to Fa’uli’s sentence because of “two previous offences of a
similar nature on his judicial record and as a personal deterrent to combat a
pattern of such offending by the player”, said committee chairman Nigel Hampton.
The Hurricanes erupted when the injured Goosen was taken from the field, tweeting
“what a shocker… player with a bad history of that crap” from the club’s official
Twitter account in a since deleted post.
Hurricanes chief executive Avan Lee described Fa’auli as a “loose cannon” but
later walked back both statements.
“We regret putting those comments out there and we apologised,” he said.
The Hurricanes are scheduled to host the Chiefs next weekend when they meet again
in the quarter finals.
BSS/AFP/SMM/1715 hrs