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Mitre 10 Cup star hit with suspension over dangerous tackle on Wellington captain Du'Plessis Kirifi

(Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

Bay of Plenty wing Fa’asiu Fuatai will miss his side’s next three matches after being handed a three-week suspension for a dangerous lifting tackle on Wellington captain Du’Plessis Kirifi over the weekend.

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Fuatai was sent from the field as a result of the second half incident, where both he and teammate Chase Tiatia lifted Kirifi while cleaning out a breakdown near their own tryline.

The manoeuvre forced Kirifi to land headfirst on the ground, leaving referee Brendon Pickerill with little choice other than to dish out a red card.

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Wallabies coach Dave Rennie and Ned Hanigan .

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Wallabies coach Dave Rennie and Ned Hanigan .

Although the entry point for a dangerous tackle sanction sits at six weeks, Fuatai’s offence was deemed to be at the lower end of the spectrum in terms of seriousness.

That, combined with a mix of influencing factors – including having faced the judiciary for a similar offence in the past, expressing immediate remorse for his actions and apologising to Kirifi post-match – resulted in a suspension length of three weeks.

The ban will be another blow for Bay of Plenty, who went on to lose the game 32-10 leaving the Steamers in sixth place in the Premiership and five points clear of the relegation zone.

Bay of Plenty will be without Fuatai for their upcoming matches against Auckland, Tasman and Manawatu.

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Read the full New Zealand Rugby press release below:

Bay of Plenty’s Fa’asiu Fuatai has received a three-week suspension after being red carded in the Wellington v Bay of Plenty match in Wellington on Friday 25 September.

Fuatai was sent from the field by referee Brendon Pickerill in the 66th minute of the match for his involvement in a lifting tackle that resulted in opposition player’s head making direct contact with the ground.

The Duty Judicial Officer Aminiasi Kefu found that Fuatai’s action was reckless and the entry point for the sanction was ruled to be at the lower end of the scale of seriousness which has a sanction of six weeks.

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In taking into account aggravating factors, Kefu added two weeks to the sanction as Fuatai had previously been to the judiciary for a similar offence, noting the outcome needed to act as a deterrent to end the pattern of offending. 

Kefu noted that another player was also involved in the tackle and that Fuatai’s participation was only moderate. Other mitigating factors included Fuatai expressing remorse and apologising to the opposition players directly after the match.
 
After considering all factors, the final suspension was confirmed as three weeks, Fuatai will miss Bay of Plenty’s matches again Auckland, Tasman and Manawatu.

In that same match, Bay of Plenty’s Jordan Lay was cited for dangerous play in a ruck, he will face a judicial hearing this week.

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Flankly 1 minute ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
N
Nickers 10 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
N
Nickers 39 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

43 Go to comments
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