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Simione Kuruvoli learns fate after red card against England

Fiji's scrum-half Simione Kuruvoli leaves the pitch after being shown a red card during the Rugby Union Nations Championship match between Fiji and England at Hill Dickinson Stadium in Liverpool on July 11, 2026. (Photo by Oli SCARFF / AFP via Getty Images)
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A disciplinary committee has handed Simione Kuruvoli a four-week suspension for his act of “physical abuse” that resulted in a permanent red card against England.

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The Fijian halfback was spotted kicking England prop Ellis Genge in the chest as he left a breakdown in the 42nd minute of his team’s 73-8 defeat at Hill Dickinson Stadium last weekend.

Replay footage showed Genge had initially held Kuruvoli back, but had released the halfback by the time Kuruvoli lashed back and struck the prop’s body.

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After reviewing the replay, referee Holly Davidson issued a permanent red card, and Fiji, already trailing 35-3, went down to 14 men for the entire second half. To make matters worse for his team, the try Fiji had scored moments after Kuruvoli’s dangerous act was scrubbed out.

Assessing the play this week, a disciplinary committee found Kuruvoli guilty of what it described as “physical abuse in contravention of Law 9.12.”

The resulting suspension had an entry point of eight games. The 27-year-old accepted he was guilty of foul play, and once his disciplinary record, conduct, and remorse were considered,  the committee applied a full 50 per cent reduction to the eight-game ban, leaving the suspension at four games.

Kuruvoli will therefore miss the following matches.

– Fiji v Scotland, Saturday, 18 July 2026
Castres Olympique v RC Vannes, Saturday, 5 September 2026
– RC Vannes v Montpellier, Saturday, 12 September 2026
– RC Vannes v Toulouse, Saturday, 19 September 2026

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17 Comments
E
EvilMockingJay 28 days ago

Could have been more…

J
J Marc 28 days ago

Maybe a yellow for Genge should have been usefull…

P
PM 28 days ago

In every port it seems you’ve always been allowed to get away with anything if the other guy’s retaliation is worse. It’s dumb that way; as if retaliation is worse than provocation.

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Red and White Dynamight 2 hours ago
'Bit unfair': Bulls boss Johan Ackermann's vow before All Blacks clash

“kicked out”. Safas clutch so desperately to their string of victim pearls that excuses are always at the ready to explain away their own poor management decisions. SARU threatened their SANZAR partners for years that ‘because of viewership numbers’ that they were owed a bigger slice of the broadcasting rights pie. Aus and NZ quite rightly told them to FO, SANZAR was an equal partnership. Notwithstanding that each partner brought their own strengths and weaknesses, certainly a winning record completely escaped SA teams as part of their ‘package’. OFS were chopped, and early, despite being 1 of the more attractive SA teams to watch. Still the concentration of SA players from 5 teams to 4 had little discernible improvement on teams performance. In fact, SA teams were - by far - the least successful partner. Only 1 Champion SA club whereas all 3 origin Aus teams won and all 5 NZ teams have won. SA teams had a 22% win rate in NZ - so noone was turning up to watch them - whilst NZ teams had a 50% win rate in SA. When Covid pandemic hit the entire World and, NZ for 1 closed borders in and out, obviously this impacted an International competition and whilst a trans-Tasman lite-Super comp returned eventually, SARU used this opportunity to scream “we’ve been kicked out”. The reality was a temporary solution that would have soon corrected itself. Of course everyone knows the Safas innately clutch desperately to being a victim - ‘noone likes us, we dont care’ - and everyone outside of SA knows that the truth is found elsewhere. After only a few seasons of turning up to matches with teams full of development players in the URC/Champions Cup, those partner nations and their fans are already sick of the moaning and whinging that inherently accompanies all things Sth African. SARU are probably still kidding themselves that they will enter the 6Nations and that they will be “kicked out” of the Rugby Championship. What a bunch of big babies.

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