{"id":11469,"date":"2024-09-18T05:24:16","date_gmt":"2024-09-17T17:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=11469"},"modified":"2024-09-18T05:24:16","modified_gmt":"2024-09-17T17:24:16","slug":"taranaki-rugby-player-banned-for-nine-weeks-after-punch-during-post-game-handshakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=11469","title":{"rendered":"Taranaki rugby player banned for nine weeks after punch during post-game handshakes"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Taranaki rugby player has been banned for nine weeks after\u00a0flooring an opponent during post-match handshakes<\/a>\u00a0after a premier grade match at Yarrow Stadium.<\/p>\n

A Spotswood United player punched a Coastal Rugby player, who was taken by ambulance to Taranaki Base Hospital examined, then later discharged after the June incident.<\/p>\n

The Taranaki Rugby Football Union had previously declined to reveal the penalty the offending player received because of an ongoing police investigation.<\/p>\n

Chief executive Mike Sandel said a judicial panel with three members had imposed the ban which was “towards the upper limit” of New Zealand Rugby sanctions for striking a player.<\/p>\n

“That was a confidential process and I won’t be naming the player involved.”<\/p>\n

The player was sanctioned for misconduct under section 10 of NZR’s disciplinary rules which captures “conduct on or off the field during or in connection with a match including (without limitation) any tunnel, changing rooms and\/or warm-up areas”.<\/p>\n

And in this case, the panel looked to section nine of the rules – sanctions for foul play – to find an indication of what the penalty would’ve been if the offending had occurred during the game.<\/p>\n

Under law 9.12, a player must not physically abuse anyone with offences ranging from biting, stamping, eye-gouging to striking with the head among others.<\/p>\n

Penalties range at the low-end from a two-week ban to a suspension of 18-plus weeks for offending at the top-end with a maximum penalty of 208 weeks.<\/p>\n

For punching or striking a player with the hand, arm, elbow or shoulder top-end offences attract a ban of 10-plus weeks with a maximum penalty of a year-long suspension.<\/p>\n

It is understood the offending Spotswood player’s suspension will carry through to next season.<\/p>\n

By comparison in July, a Canterbury rugby coach was suspended for 15 weeks or matches for misconduct towards a referee.<\/p>\n

The coach had been accused of assaulting a referee in Ashburton on 20 July, at the end of the senior B semi-final match between Hampstead and Celtic.<\/p>\n

A Mid Canterbury Rugby Union judicial hearing found the coach guilty of using threatening words or actions and grabbing the referee’s shirt.<\/p>\n

The maximum penalty for the coach’s behaviour was 23 weeks suspension.<\/p>\n

Sandel said the Coastal player who had been hit in Taranaki “was quite within his rights to take the incident up with the police” which he believed he had done.<\/p>\n

Police told RNZ “the investigation into this matter remains ongoing – charges have not yet been filed”.<\/p>\n

Spotswood United and Coastal Rugby have been asked for comment.<\/p>\n

rnz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Taranaki rugby player has been banned for nine weeks after\u00a0flooring an opponent during post-match handshakes\u00a0after a premier grade match at Yarrow Stadium. A Spotswood United player punched a Coastal Rugby player, who was taken by ambulance to Taranaki Base Hospital examined, then later discharged after the June incident. The Taranaki Rugby Football Union had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":11470,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11469"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11471,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11469\/revisions\/11471"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}