{"id":383674,"date":"2024-04-11T07:15:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-11T07:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=383674"},"modified":"2024-04-11T08:02:48","modified_gmt":"2024-04-11T08:02:48","slug":"fury-over-two-week-ban-for-malicious-unacceptable-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=383674","title":{"rendered":"Fury over two-week ban for 'malicious', 'unacceptable' act"},"content":{"rendered":"

Melbourne Rebels<\/a> head coach Kevin Foote was stunned to learn Fijian Drua player Jone Koroiduadua only received a two-week ban for headbutting Alex Mafi.<\/p>\n

Koroiduadua received a red card for the clash and was referred to the SANZAAR Foul Play Review Committee (FPRC).\u00a0<\/p>\n

There it was found the infringement "merited a low-end entry point" according to FPRC chairman Stephen Hardy.<\/p>\n

Watch all the action from the 2024 Super Rugby Pacific season, with<\/strong><\/em> every match ad-free, live and and on demand on Stan Sport<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The committee noted the two players were already head-to-head and Koroiduadua made "limited contact" to Mafi's head.<\/p>\n

"There was also no injury to the victim player," said Hardy.<\/p>\n

"The Foul Play Review Committee emphasised that had there been more forceful head contact made, the entry point may well have been higher than low-end."<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

That decision left Foote bewildered, who lashed the review committee for its evaluation of the incident.<\/p>\n

Foote said the incident should have been assessed at the top end of sanctions, which would have given SANZAAR a 16-week entry point to work from.<\/p>\n

"There is intent there, whether he lands it or not is irrelevant," said Foote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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"If Mafi has his head forward at that stage and he hits him, does that make it worse?<\/p>\n

"That is malicious. My understanding is if you make any contact with the head, we have been told that is top, top, top suspension \u2013 and he gets two weeks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"(Koroiduadua) was on a mission. There was a late hit on Carter (Gordon) and there was something with Ryan (Louwrens) just before that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"But then to obviously headbutt on top of that, I mean come on."<\/p>\n

\"Melbourne<\/p>\n

Koroiduadua was one of two Fijian Drua players to receive a red card, the other being Frank Lomani for his elbow shot on Josh Lowrens.<\/p>\n

Foote did question the consistency of officiating, noting a 2022 incident in which Reece Hodge served a one-week ban for copping two team fouls.<\/p>\n

Foote said a two-week ban for a headbutt "doesn't make sense" when Hodge received one week for receiving two yellow cards in that game \u2013 which could have been upgraded to two weeks if the team unsuccessfully fought his suspension.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/StanSportRugby\/status\/1777505209469817073<\/a><\/p>\n

Before the sanction was levelled against Koroiduadua, Cameron Shepherd said players needed to receive "acceptable punishments" for such acts.<\/p>\n

"It's so far past unacceptable," said Shepherd.<\/p>\n

"He's lucky he didn't hit him flush because the damage could have been quite severe; broken jaw, maybe some damaged teeth."<\/p>\n

Morgan Turinui suggested Koroiduadua was aiming for Mafi's chest.<\/p>\n

"I reckon he's aiming for the chest and he gets the chin," said Turinui on Stan Sport's Between Two Posts<\/em>.<\/p>\n

"It's a brain explosion."<\/p>\n

Stephen Hoiles offered a far more terse assessment.<\/p>\n

"I think that's worse (than Lomani's elbow on Canham). You can't say missed," he said.<\/p>\n

"It doesn't matter. If he got an inch higher or Mafi had somehow came forward and he hits him in the nose\u2026 if it gets him in the nose it's probably the ugliest thing we've seen in rugby for five years."<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/StanSportRugby\/status\/1778264236289933716<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Melbourne Rebels head coach Kevin Foote was stunned to learn Fijian Drua player Jone Koroiduadua only received a two-week ban for headbutting Alex Mafi. Koroiduadua […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":382067,"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\/383674"}],"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=383674"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":383678,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383674\/revisions\/383678"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/382067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=383674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=383674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=383674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}