1
'No mitigation can be applied': Albert Tuisue cops yet another ban
Albert Tuisue has been banned for the second time in recent months, the Fijian back-rower following up his Test duty red card in November with a two-game ban after the receipt of three Gallagher Premiership yellow cards this season while playing for Gloucester.
ADVERTISEMENT
The forward was banned for four matches after he was red-carded by French referee Mathieu Raynal following his second-half November 12 collision with Joey Carbery in Dublin. That disciplinary hearing summary reported that “the player denied he had committed an act of foul play worthy of a red card, but admitted that the act was worthy of at most a yellow card”.
Now, a sequence of yellow cards in the English league has come to haunt Tuisue as he will be absent for the upcoming Gloucester games versus Saracens in the Premiership this Friday and the following weekend’s Heineken Champions Cup game against Leinster.
An RFU statement read: “The case of Albert Tuisue, Gloucester Rugby, was heard on Wednesday, January 4, by a single judicial officer, Sam Hillas. Tuisue has received three foul play yellow cards during the course of the current season, most recently on December 31 in the game against London Irish. He received a two-week ban.”
The written verdict issued by the RFU detailed the referee reports on the three yellow cards that Tuisue picked up with Gloucester, the first coming in the October 8 game versus Bath. “Gloucester No8 made no attempt to wrap his arms and hit Bath No6 without the ball. I saw the incident live but in dialogue with the TMO as play was continuing, we deemed the incident to meet the threshold for a yellow card.”
It was October 28 versus Exeter when Tuisue picked up his second Gloucester card. “Exeter formed a maul just inside Gloucester 22. The maul traveled at pace to the five-metre line where it was deliberately collapsed by Gloucester 20. Yellow card issued.”
Regarding last weekend’s third yellow for Gloucester, the referee’s report on Tuisue commented: “At a break in play the TMO brought an incident of foul play to my attention. Once on the screen, I observed that Gloucester No20 had made head contact with his shoulder to the head of London Irish No13.
ADVERTISEMENT
“He was at fault due to being upright. Whilst there was head contact, the majority of the force was through the chest and therefore I observed that the tackle wasn’t of high danger. A yellow card was issued as per the head contact protocol.”
In the subsequent summary, judicial officer Hillas said: “No mitigation can be applied to reduce the entry point of one week. The player has two previous red cards on his record. The first was from September 2019 (RFU) which resulted in a three-week ban for dangerous tackling.
“The second red was in November 2022 (WR) which was also for a dangerous tackle and resulted in a four-week suspension (following which he completed the WR coaching intervention programme). As a result of the player’s record, one week was added to the entry point as an aggravating feature. The final sanction to be applied is two weeks.”
- Click here to read the full Albert Tuisue disciplinary hearing summary
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
29 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
29 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
29 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
29 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
29 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments