Naughty Naiyaravoro slapped with a ban
SANZAAR judicial officer Robert Stelzner accepted a 'guilty' plea from Naiyaravoro for contravening Law 10.4 (i): Tackling, tapping, pushing or pulling an Opponent jumping for the ball in a line-out or in open play.
The incident occurred in the 57th minute of a very spiteful match – won 28-17 by the Hurricanes in Sydney on Saturday.
The referee for the match, Chris Pollock, awarded a yellow card for the incident.
Naiyaravoro was subsequently cited and charged with having contravened Law 10.4 (i).
He has been suspended from all forms of the game for one week up to and including Saturday, July 16.
This rules him out of the Waratahs' decisive final league match of the season – against the Blues in Auckland this coming Friday.
In his finding, Stelzner ruled that: "Taqele Naiyaravoro [the player] and his representatives appeared before me and admitted a breach of the Law 10.4(i) charge.
"Having conducted a detailed review of all the available evidence, including all camera angles and additional evidence, including from the player and submissions from his legal representative, I upheld the citing under Law 10.4 (i) Tackling, tapping, pushing or pulling an Opponent jumping for the ball in a line-out or in open play.
"With respect to sanction I deemed the act of foul play merited a low-end entry point of three weeks.
"There were no aggravating factors.
"As to mitigation, I took into account the player's good record, his early guilty plea, the circumstances of the incident itself – including the fact that it was unintentional, the player's clear remorse, his opponent's apparent acceptance of these facts and what would otherwise have been a disproportionate sanction to the level of offending, I considered a reduction of two weeks to be appropriate, making a suspension from all rugby for one week, up to and including Saturday July 16."
The Waratahs are in a desperate race against the Brumbies to top the Australian conference.
The team not topping the Australian conference will fall out of the play-off race, as at least four New Zealand teams will finish ahead of them in the Australasian conference.
That means one play-off spot will go to the New Zealand conference winners – still to be decided – and the three wildcard slots for the Australasian conference will go to the other three Kiwi teams.
