{"id":35378,"date":"2021-02-16T03:09:10","date_gmt":"2021-02-16T04:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=35378"},"modified":"2021-02-16T04:56:39","modified_gmt":"2021-02-16T04:56:39","slug":"rugbys-star-nrl-recruit-stood-down-for-round-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=35378","title":{"rendered":"Rugby's star NRL recruit stood down for round 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Queensland Reds have stood down star NRL recruit Suliasi Vunivalu for the Super Rugby AU season opener after he was charged with allegedly pushing a security guard "at a licensed venue in Brisbane."<\/p>\n

Rugby Australia and the Queensland Rugby Union said the incident occured on January 30 and that "the matter is ongoing before the court and will be reviewed by RA and QRU once it is resolved."<\/p>\n

In the meantime, the former Melbourne Storm premiership winner will miss Friday's clash with the NSW Waratahs in Brisbane "for bringing the club and the game into disrepute."<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n

The QRU also issued Vunivalu a formal written warning, a fine of $10,000 "and the club will provide Suliasi with counselling and support."<\/p>\n

"Rugby Australia and the Queensland Rugby Union takes its position within the community very seriously and aims to uphold the highest standards of behaviour at all times," the statement read.<\/p>\n

It is a big blow for both the Reds and RA, who would have hoped for Vunivalu to make a starring debut in Super Rugby following his high profile code switch.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong><\/em> Andrew Mehrtens and Dave Rennie run the rule over Australia's playmaking options<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong><\/em> Wallabies coach Dave Rennie on the massive strides Australian rugby must make in 2021<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong><\/em> Morgan Turinui's Super Rugby AU breakout stars and players to watch in 2021<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In an interview with Wide World of Sports before the incident was revealed, Wallabies coach Dave Rennie spoke of his excitement at unleashing the athletic marvel.<\/p>\n

Vunivalu trained with the Wallabies late last year but did not play a game.<\/p>\n

"It's a really good signing," Rennie said.<\/p>\n

\"Suliasi<\/p>\n

"Obviously he's a rugby player who got nabbed straight out of high school to go to league and we've seen what we achieved there. It was good, we got him in for about 10 days and he trained with us for a couple of reasons.<\/p>\n

"One, for us to get to know him a bit better and secondly for him to get an understanding of our environment and get some takeaways for him to focus on during the Reds season.<\/p>\n

"So it was really worthwhile. He's a helluva athlete, he's a good man and slotted in well. But he needs to go away and perform."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Queensland Reds have stood down star NRL recruit Suliasi Vunivalu for the Super Rugby AU season opener after he was charged with allegedly pushing […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35378"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35378"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35380,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35378\/revisions\/35380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}