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Fijian Drua captain Nemani Nagusa given heaviest suspension of season
Fijian Drua captain Nemani Nagusa has been handed the heaviest suspension of the Super Rugby Pacific season thus far following his red card against the Waratahs on Friday.
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Nagusa was sent from the field during the first half of his side’s 38-14 defeat on the Gold Coast last weekend after he connected with the head of Waratahs first-five Tane Edmed with a wild swinging arm while attempting to make an off-the-ball tackle.
Nagusa was one of five players shown red cards in the latest round of Super Rugby Pacific for head-related infringements as SANZAAR cracks down on player welfare.
The 33-year-old loose forward has subsequently received the largest punishment of all those who have faced the SANZAAR judicial committee this season.
The judicial committee has banned Nagusa for four weeks in a suspension that will keep him sidelined until their round 13 clash against Moana Pasifika in Sydney on May 14.
As such, the 18-test Fijian international will miss the Drua’s upcoming clashes against the Brumbies, Blues, Highlanders (which will be the franchise’s first Super Rugby Pacific match in Fiji) and Hurricanes.
No player has been suspended for that long so far this season. All other players who have been suspended this season – Blues prop Nepo Laulala, Crusaders hooker Shilo Klein and Reds duo Dane Zander and Tauina Tualima – received three-week bans.
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Reds prop Taniela Tupou and Brumbies fullback Tom Banks fronted the judiciary committee for separate incidents earlier in the year, but both players were either dismissed or issued a warning.
In a statement released on Wednesday, SANZAAR said it had deemed Nagusa to have contravened law 9.13, which stipulates that “a player must not tackle an opponent early, late or dangerously”.
The judicial committee ruled that while the level of Nagusa’s offending was worthy of a six-week ban, they had slashed that suspension in half due to his good judicial record over a long career, his acceptance of foul play and his expressed remorse.
However, an additional week was added to his suspension as the judicial committee viewed the direct contact to the head with his swinging arm as particularly dangerous and warranted a deterrent penalty.
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Nagusa has been given the option by SANZAAR to forego the final week of his suspension to undertake “a coaching intervention that specifically addresses the technical tackle/contact technique error that caused or contributed to the foul play”.
That intervention, which will be overseen by a panel of independent World Rugby coaches, has also been made available to other suspended players who have been banned for head-related infringements for the first time.
Nagusa – along with Laulala, Klein and Tualima – could be joined by Blues wing Clarke Clarke in being suspended after having also been sent off over the weekend.
Clarke was red carded for colliding into the head of Moana Pasifika wing Tomasi Alosio while attempting a charge down in his side’s 46-16 win at Eden Park on Saturday, and will learn his fate on Wednesday.
The Drua will continue their campaign without Nagusa this Saturday when they host the table-topping Brumbies at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane.
Comments on RugbyPass
“Ou Lem” leading that ‘98 team to a 13-3 victory was the stuff of legend! Especially since we hadn’t beaten them for many years. 10/12/13 combo of Honiball, Pieter Muller & Andre Snyman were tough as nails! I remember screaming my head off in the early hours of the morning & my brother hitting a hole through one of the bedroom doors🤭😂
1 Go to commentsWhatever about 2017 - it's seven years ago and irrelevant now. In 2021 New Zealand needed a numerical advantage for 75% of the game and what was then the largest home advantage crowd in the history of the sport in order to just _barely_ beat England.
3 Go to commentsBoth cards were harsh. Yet again highlighting rugby's inconsistencies and the absurd effect of cards
2 Go to commentsExcellent game management in the last 15 or so minutes to close it out. Aussie got a bit panicky.
2 Go to commentsWhile all this is going on… I’ve been thinking more about the NFL draft system and how to make the commercial elements of the game more sustainable for SA teams who precariously live on the fringe of these developments. SA teams play in Europe now, and are welcome, because there’s a novelty to it. SA certainly doesn’t bring the bucks (like a Japan would to SR) but they bring eyes to it. But if they don’t perform (because they don’t have the money like the big clubs) - it’s easy come easy go… I think there is an element of strategic drafting going on in SA. Where the best players (assets) are sort of distributed amongst the major teams. It’s why we’re seeing Moodie at the Bulls for example and not at his homegrown Western Province. 20-30 years ago, it was all about playing for your province of birth. That has clearly changed in the modern era. Maybe Moodie couldn’t stay in the cape because at the time the Stormers were broke? Or had too many good players to fit him in? Kistchoff’s sabbatical to Ireland and back had financial benefits. Now they can afford him again (I would guess). What I am getting at is - I think SA Rugby needs to have a very strong strategy around how teams equitably share good youth players out of the youth structures. That is SA’s strong point - a good supply of good players out of our schools and varsities. It doesn’t need to be the spectacle we see out of the states, but a system where SA teams and SA rugby decide on where to draft youth, how to fund this and how to make it that it were possible for a team like the Cheetahs (for example) to end up with a team of young stars and win! This is the investment and thinking that needs to be happening at grassroots to sustain the monster meanwhile being created at the top.
71 Go to commentsGreat win - but very poor officiating yet again. Even the Aussie commentators slammed the YC decisions.
1 Go to commentsThe game where it felt like RSA was going to lose the most was the England game in my view. Heart in throat after the Farrell drop-goal…Amazing that the boks overcame 3 times in a row…not likely to be repeated ever in my view Also the boys looked emotionally spent in the England game in the 1st half That said, why was World Rugby and Beaumont allowed to stack the pools in England’s favour? Toughest opponents on that side of the draw were Fiji, Argentina (implode central) and Auckland Girls 2nd team
50 Go to commentsOnline trolls - the only ppl who the Crusaders can beat
2 Go to commentsDefinitely some greater nous by the Walleroos and it will take a bit of time for Jo Yapp to have a lasting affect. Canada are a forward dominated physical team and only the top 3 teams can match them, though not so sure about BF’s forwards. Many of Canada’s forwards earn their living in the English PWR, the breeding ground for the Red Roses amazing strength in depth. The next PAC4 matches will be interesting.
1 Go to commentsIs the Club World Cup and the World League, in combination, going to make or break world Rugby? I personally think it’s too much. Established tournaments and competitions’s significance is going to be drowned out by “the new shiney Mall built just down the street”.
71 Go to commentsLoved Carr‘s post match interview. “No, I don’t think so Jean. But thank you.” Good kid. Louw a certain feature for the Boks this year.
1 Go to comments“Where is the challenge to Leinster, Toulouse and La Rochelle likely to come from in future?” Racing 92 ? This has not been a good season for them this year, but they have a very strong squad……players like Woki, Nyakane, Kolisi, Le Roux, Lauret(these two older now), Le Garrec, Fickou, Tuisova, Arundell. With the addition next year of Owen Farrell, that is some firepower to mount a serious challenge ? And with Stuart Lancaster having a year under his belt, things should go better. Northampton will be a year wiser, more streetwise too. And I would expect one or two of the South African sides to mount a more serious challenge, but that would depend on keeping more players at home
71 Go to commentsWow, have to go but can’t leave without saying these thoughts. And carlos might jump in here, but going through the repercussions I had the thought that sole nation representatives would see this tournament as a huge boon. The prestige alone by provide a huge incentive for nations like Argentina to place a fully international club side into one of these tournaments (namely Super Rugby). I don’t know about the money side but if a team like the Jaguares was on the fence about returning I could see this entry as deciding the deal (at least for make up of that side with its eligibility criteria etc). Same goes for Fiji, and the Drua, if there can be found money to invest in bringing more internationals into the side. It’s great work from those involved in European rugby to sacrifice their finals, or more accurately, to open there finals upto 8 other world teams. It creates a great niche and can be used by other parties to add further improvements to the game. Huge change from the way things in the past have stalled. I did not even know that about the French game. Can we not then, for all the posters out there that don’t want to follow NZ and make the game more aerobic, now make a clear decision around with more injuries occur the more tired an athlete is? If France doesn’t have less injuries, then that puts paid to that complaint, and we just need to find out if it is actually more dangerous having ‘bigger’ athletes or not. How long have they had this rule?
71 Go to commentsHaha he does the exact opposite of what you’d expect any receiver to do, Brilliant!
2 Go to commentswell the favourites dont always win and let scott robertson chose his number 8
4 Go to commentsthats great for cam miller and the highlanders the crusaders have got problems within there systems that were proberly covered up astheywere winning when scott robertson was in charge
2 Go to commentsThe last time Plumtree coached the sharks they sucked the same when with the hurricanes now back with the shark Springboro. They still have no game plan
1 Go to commentsan impressive nail biting win for the Blues...but for mine the losing of the game sits with Isaia Walker-Leawere who fumbled balls from kick offs, broken play and then stripped of the ball by Sam Nock in the final minute…
4 Go to commentsAll of the Moderna law changes have been to slow the game down, playing into the hands of SA and the north. Incentivising boring, negative rugby. Brilliant changes. Speed up the game.
29 Go to commentsImagine you kick to the lineout, they give away a free kick, you have a great chance at a scrum, sorry sir you have to tap and go. Ridiculous
29 Go to comments