{"id":440482,"date":"2025-02-11T20:10:40","date_gmt":"2025-02-11T21:10:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=440482"},"modified":"2025-02-11T22:11:16","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T22:11:16","slug":"tormented-gold-medallist-sacked-for-biting-teammate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=440482","title":{"rendered":"&#039;Tormented&#039; gold medallist sacked for biting teammate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Masivesi Dakuwaqa has offered apologies to Biarritz teammate Pierre Pages after viciously biting his cheek during an alcohol fuelled night out, an incident that has led to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/rugby\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"rugby\">rugby<\/a> club terminating his contract.<\/p>\n<p>In an interview with <em>L&#x27;Equipe<\/em> newspaper on Wednesday (AEDT), 2016 Fiji Olympic <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/topic\/rugby-sevens-26jv\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"sevens\">sevens<\/a> gold medallist Dakuwaqa said he can&#x27;t understand why he attacked Pages when the scrumhalf tried to calm him down after a team party last month at a local restaurant in southern France.<\/p>\n<p>Dakuwaqa became angry and aggressive after several teammates advised him not to drive home.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Watch all the action from the 2025 Super Rugby Pacific season, kicking off on February 14,<\/em><\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/9.nine.com.au\/KRnrlm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"with every match ad free, live and on demand on Stan Sport\"><strong><em>with every match ad free, live and on demand on Stan Sport<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"031b8123-f7d4-4b08-8b26-8be4a5daed8d\" src=\"https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/031b8123-f7d4-4b08-8b26-8be4a5daed8d\" alt=\"Masivesi Dakuwaqa with his gold medal at the Rio 2016 Olympics.\" data-width=\"3208\" data-height=\"1805\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The Fijian player reportedly smashed a car window, prompting Pages to come over to talk to him.<\/p>\n<p>That&#x27;s when Dakuwaqa bit his teammate, an injury that left his face bloodied and required 20 stitches at a clinic in Biarritz.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Following the club&#x27;s internal investigation, the allegations made against Masivesi Dakuwaqa have made it impossible for him to continue his involvement with the club,&quot; said Biarritz, which plays in the second division.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/nrl\/the-mole-exclusive-2025-joseph-manu-japan-rugby-union-switch-sydney-roosters-return-20250211-p5lbdx.html\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Manu poised for shock NRL return amid rugby &#x27;nightmare&#x27;\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Manu poised for shock NRL return amid rugby &#x27;nightmare&#x27;\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/afl\/news-2025-dean-cox-coach-sydney-swans-2024-grand-final-loss-brisbane-lions-review-20250211-p5lbe3.html\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"New coach&#x27;s brutal seven-hour Swans review\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>New coach&#x27;s brutal seven-hour Swans review<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>\ufeffREAD MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/basketball\/nbl-finals-news-2025-sydney-kings-xavier-cooks-doping-suspension-20250211-p5lbau.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"Aussie star banned for doping on eve of NBL finals\"><strong>Aussie star banned for doping on eve of NBL finals<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"be48fd41-e220-45de-9cff-63d2c8222a09\" src=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/be48fd41-e220-45de-9cff-63d2c8222a09-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Masivesi Dakuwaqu of Toulon.\" data-width=\"1500\" data-height=\"844\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The club said it would make no further comment.<\/p>\n<p>Dakuwaqa said he is &quot;tormented by remorse&quot; and can&#x27;t stop thinking about Pages.<\/p>\n<p>They have not spoken since the incident after his lawyer told him he was not allowed to get in touch with him.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>NEW PODCAST! Matt Burke makes his Between Two Posts debut to preview Super Rugby with Sean Maloney and Morgan Turinui\ufeff<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/omny.fm\/shows\/between-two-posts-1\/beginners-guide-to-2025-season\/embed?in_playlist=podcast&amp;style=Cover\" rel=\"nofollow\" class=\"embed-social embed-omnypodcast\" data-show-caption=\"false\">https:\/\/omny.fm\/shows\/between-two-posts-1\/beginners-guide-to-2025-season\/embed?in_playlist=podcast&amp;style=Cover<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&quot;I&#x27;d so much like to apologise to Pierre. To apologise to him and his family,&quot; he said, adding that he was shocked by what he did.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;It should never have happened,&quot; he told <em>L&#x27;Equipe<\/em>. &quot;If I hadn&#x27;t been drinking, I&#x27;d never have done it. I drank too many beers. I lost my way. We&#x27;d organised this meal between players to strengthen our team spirit after a series of defeats.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Everything was going well. We were telling stories and having a laugh. Then I had a blackout. I can&#x27;t remember what happened.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I woke up in a drunk tank (jail cell), without my shirt, wondering what I was doing there. I couldn&#x27;t remember a thing. I told myself I&#x27;d done something wrong, but I didn&#x27;t know what. When the police questioned me, I asked them: &#x27;Why am I here, what have I done?&#x27;<\/p>\n<p>&quot;They said: &#x27;You bit someone. I asked them, &#x27;Who did I bite?&#x27; Then they showed me a photo of Pierre taken from Google.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>The 30-year-old Dakuwaqa was a member of Fiji&#x27;s 2016 Olympic gold medal winning squad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Masivesi Dakuwaqa has offered apologies to Biarritz teammate Pierre Pages after viciously biting his cheek during an alcohol fuelled night out, an incident that has <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=440482\" title=\"&#039;Tormented&#039; gold medallist sacked for biting teammate\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":440485,"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\/440482"}],"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=440482"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":440492,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440482\/revisions\/440492"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/440485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=440482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=440482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=440482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}