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Blues prop Alex Hodgman's Super Rugby Aotearoa season over following red card against Highlanders

(Photo by Joe Allison/Getty Images)

Blues prop Alex Hodgman will play no further part in Super Rugby Aotearoa this season after copping a three-week ban for the red card he received during his side’s loss to the Highlanders on Friday.

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Hodgman was sent from the field by referee Brendon Pickerill in the 72nd minute of the match for a shoulder charge to the head of Highlanders flanker James Lentjes.

The 27-year-old’s dismissal added insult to injury as the Blues fell to a 35-29 defeat at Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin.

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NZ players on why Springboks team to face Lions could be very different from 2019 RWC side

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    NZ players on why Springboks team to face Lions could be very different from 2019 RWC side

    The Auckland franchise will be without Hodgman for the remainder of the competition after the SANZAAR foul play review committee accepted the four-test All Black’s guilty plea of contravening Law 9.13: A player must not tackle an opponent early, late or dangerously.

    The committee deemed the offence to be worthy of a six-week suspension, but mitigating factors, such as Hodgman’s good judicial record and his early guilty plea, means his sideline spell has been cut in half to just three weeks.

    As a result, Hodgman will be unavailable to play at any level of the game up to and including May 8, the date of which the Super Rugby Aotearoa final is scheduled for.

    The committee added that if the Blues don’t reach the competition’s final, they reserve the right to extend Hodgman’s ban to the franchise’s next scheduled match, which is their Super Rugby Trans-Tasman opener against the Melbourne Rebels at AAMI Park on May 15.

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    The Blues’ loss to the Highlanders, their third in four matches, saw the side drop to third place on the Super Rugby Aotearoa standings with two matches left to play in the regular season.

    A place in the Super Rugby Aotearoa final is still within touching distance, although the Blues will likely need a victory against the league-leading Crusaders in Christchurch this weekend.

     

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    Eliza Galloway 52 minutes ago
    Geoff Parling: An Englishman roasting the Lions?

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    44 Go to comments
    J
    JW 1 hour ago
    James O'Connor, the Lions and the great club v country conundrum

    Lol you need to shoot your editor for that headline, even I near skipped the article.


    France simply need to go to a league format for the Brennus, that will shave two weekends of pointless knockout rugby from their season and raise the competitions standards and mystique no end.


    The under age loophole is also a easy door to shut, just remove the lower age limit. WR simply never envisioned a day were teams would target people under the age of 17 or whatever it is now, but much like with Rassie and his use of subs bench, that day was obviously always going to come. I can’t remember how football does it, I think it’s the other way around with them, you can’t sign anyone younger than that but unions can’t stop 17 or 18 yo’s from leaving for a pro club if they want to. There is a transaction that takes place of a few hundred thousand for a normal average player. I’d prefer rugby to be stricter and just keep the union bodies signoff being required.


    What really was their problem with Kite and co leaving though? Do we really need a game dominated by Internationals? I even think WR’s proposed calendar might be a bit too much, with at minimum 12 top tier games being played in the World Championship. I think 10 to 12, maybe any one player playing 10 of those 12 is the best way to think of it, for every international team is max, so that they can allow their domestic comps to shine if they want, and other nations like Japan and Fiji can, even some of the home nations maybe, and fill out their calendar with extra tours if they like them as a way to make money. As it is RA don’t have as good a pathway system, so they could simply buy back those players if they turn good. Are they worried they’ll be less likely to? We wait for baited breath for the new season to be laid out in front of us by WR.

    It could impose sanctions on the Fédération Française de Rugby, but the body which runs the Top 14 and the ProD2, the Ligue Nationale de Rugby, is entirely independent.

    It’s not independent at all. The LNR is a body under, and commissioned by, the FFR (and Government control) to mediate the clubs. FFR can simply install a new club competition if they don’t listen, then you’d see whether the players want to stay at any club who doesn’t tow the line and move to the new competition, as they obviously wouldn’t fall under the auspice of world rugby. They would be rebels, which is fine in and upon itself, but they would isolate themselves from the rest of the game and would need to be OK with that. I have no doubt whatsoever that clubs would have to and want to fall in line to remain part of the EPCR and French rugby. Probably even the last thing they would want is to compete with another French domestic competition that has all the advantages they don’t.


    All those players would do good for a few seasons in France, especially the fringe ones, with thankfully zero risk of them being poached if they turn good. New Zealand had a turn at keeping all of it’s talent, and while it upticked the competitiveness of the Super Rugby teams into a total dominance of Australian and South African counterparts (who were suffering more heavily than most the other way at that stage), it didn’t have as positive an effect on the next step up as ensuring young talents development is not hindered does. Essentially NZR flooded the locate market with players but inevitably it didn’t think the local economy could sustain any more pro teams itself, so now we are seeing a normal amount of exodus for the availability of places again. Are Australia in exactly the same footing? I think so, finances where dicey for a while perhaps but I doubt they are putting money constraints on their contracting now. It’s purely about who leaves to open up opportunity.

    62 Go to comments
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