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Namibia RU: Lifetime playing ban for player who attacked referee

The Namibia RU have issued a lifetime ban to a club player (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

A club player in Namibia has been given a lifetime ban from playing rugby following an altercation with a referee last month. He has also been suspended from all forms of rugby – including coaching, refereeing and administration – for 156 weeks through to May 31, 2027.

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It was May 18 when a player from the Grootfontein club ran towards the match referee and tackled him to the ground. The player was red-carded and the referee called off the match with immediate effect due to concerns for his safety.

A disciplinary hearing was convened 12 days later, on May 30, and after reviewing the referee’s report and video footage of the red-carded incident, it was decided to heavily penalise the offending player.

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    A video of the incident from the match versus the Falcons showed that play had stopped to allow the referee to reprimand another Grootfontein player when he was hit to the floor.

    A social media statement by the Namibia Rugby Union read:  “A serious incident occurred involving a Grootfontein Rugby Club player who tackled the match referee, causing the game to end prematurely.

    “Following a disciplinary hearing, the NRU has issued a lifetime ban from playing rugby and a 156-week ban from all rugby activities, effective May 30.

    “Our commitment to the safety and integrity of rugby remains unwavering. Full details and the right to appeal can be found in our statement.”

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    1 Comment
    B
    Bull Shark 303 days ago

    Johnny Sexton got off lightly then.

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    JW 56 minutes ago
    The raw data that proves Super Rugby Pacific is currently a cut above

    Your links are private if you were intending them to be shared.


    URC us doing very well with it’s competitiveness given that each group has it’s own salary caps and entirely different makeups, from clubs, to provinces, to franchises and regions. One group might be teams from the most populace country with the biggest rugby base while another the smallest, with the least amount of rugby players to chose from.

    On average, just about one SRP game every weekend has been decided in the last five minutes!

    I would also be interested in a average clock length (don’t need to go into the whole BIP hole) showing how long the last phases are taking (because one team is trying to still alter the match points outcome in some way) to complete before the game finally ends. I don’t know if its more common this year but in general I wonder if its a stat that can show how good games are/were?

    17.7%

    You really had the same reversed 10 points lead % as you had lead changes after the 75th?


    Some of these values while standing out numerically against each other have a much less correlative impact than some that tighter differences which might only stick out a small amount. While SRP’s ones might not necessarily be such examples (and here I’m still going off the basic principle that everyone knew this was happening, even though I was challenged about that assumption) they have had the advantage of the fixtures being were doctored even more than normal. In this instance its irrelevant whether they were doctored or not of course, but I think it’s pretty safe to say that there hasn’t been a lot of cross over of worst v best yet. Maybe it just feels like that because the worst are so much better this year? I definitely think that it is undeniable that all the bottom teams (that remain) have gotten better.


    So I would be very interested in another weight graph of the games still, but regardless I don’t think it’s fair for SRP to claim anything over the other leagues yet. Certainly as I have said numerous times about the Top 14, it’s sub par compared to what it’s billed up to be, but that is the only league in this group that has promotion and relegation, which is the antitheses of a competitive league, so a trade off there.


    Thank you very much for sharing your research though Dmitri, I hope you find another topic to get interested about!

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