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Serial offender Patelesio Tomkinson handed lengthy ban for dangerous tackle

Patelesio Tomkinson. (Photo by Joe Allison/Getty Images)

Patelesio Tomkinson will miss six matches of Otago’s Mitre 10 Cup campaign following a dangerous tackle made by the midfielder on Auckland’s Simon Hickey during their Saturday afternoon match.

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Tomkinson led with his shoulder as he collided with Hickey’s head in the 81st minute of the match. The Highlanders centre was promptly sent off for the tackle and the game ended shortly thereafter, 38-6 in Auckland’s favour.

Tomkinson has built a reputation as a fierce defender but his aggression has too often seen the midfielder on the receiving end of penalty calls.

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In 2019, Tomkinson was handed a red card for a dangerous tackle on Chiefs lock Brodie Retallick. While the SANZAAR judiciary struck the card from the record, Tomkinson’s tackled was at the very least worthy of a yellow card.

More recently, Tomkinson spent 10 minutes in the bin in the Highlanders’ win over the Brumbies earlier this year for a dangerous shot on Tom Banks. That yellow card was upgraded to a three-week suspension following the match.

Barely a month ago, Tomkinson’s off the ball hit on Crusaders prop Oli Jager sent the prop to hospital. While Crusaders coach Scott Robertson thought Tomkinson’s actions warranted a red card, the midfielder was only shown yellow.

Following Saturday’s match, All Blacks and Auckland star Rieko Ioane labelled Tomkinson’s last-minute tackle on Hickey as a “cheap shot”.

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“You never want to go out to hurt anyone in the other team, and you never want to intentionally do that,” Ioane told Stuff after the win. “Whether he [Tomkinson] did… I’m sort of going to give him the benefit of the doubt that he didn’t, but in the end it looked quite bad.

“He’s a hard hitter, he always has been since he went to school, and he just needs to drop his hips.”

Following the erroneous sending off against the Chiefs last year, Highlanders coach Aaron Mauger defended the now-24-year-old midfielder.

“He’s actually a pretty softly-spoken guy, and pretty gentle, but as soon as he crosses the chalk, he’s certainly got that ruthless mindset about him.

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“[He’s] not too dissimilar to Brian Lima, who’s also a Highlanders legend, so there’s a bit of Brian Lima in Sio’s mindset around the tackle.”

Tomkinson’s latest six-week suspension means he’ll miss Otago’s matches against Manawatu, Taranaki, Hawke’s Bay, Wellington, Counties Manukau and Northland.

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Bull Shark 5 hours ago
Rassie Erasmus' Boks selection policy is becoming bizarre

To be fair, the only thing that drives engagement on this site is over the top critiques of Southern Hemisphere teams.


Or articles about people on podcasts criticizing southern hemisphere teams.


Articles regarding the Northern Hemisphere tend to be more positive than critical. I guess to also rile up kiwis and Saffers who seem to be the majority of followers in the comments section. There seems to be a whole department dedicated to Ireland’s world ranking news.


Despite being dialled into the Northern edition - I know sweet fokall about what’s going on in France.


And even less than fokall about what’s cutting in Japan - which has a fast growing, increasingly premium League competition emerging.


And let’s not talk about the pacific. Do they even play rugby Down there.


Oh and the Americas. I’ve read more articles about a young, stargazing Welshman’s foray into NFL than I have anything related to either the north and south continents of the Americas.


I will give credit that the women’s game is getting decent airtime. But for the rest and the above; it’s just pathetic coming from a World Rugby website.


Just consider the innovation emerging in Japan with the pedigree of coaches over there.


There’s so much good we could be reading.


Instead it’s unimaginative “critical for the sake of feigning controversial”. Which is lazy, because in order to pull that off all you need to be really good at is:


1. Being a doos;

2. Having an opinion.


No prior experience needed.


Which is not journalism. That’s like all or most of us in the comments section. People like Finn (who I believe is a RP contributor).


Anyway. Hopefully it will get better. The game is growing and the interest in the game is growing. Maybe it will attract more qualified journalists over time.

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