Swire Shipping Fijian Drua scrumhalf Frank Lomani has been suspended for six weeks, and prop Jone Koroiduadua received a two-week ban following their red card incidents against the Rebels at AAMI Park in Melbourne last Friday.
Lomani’s suspension ends on May 26 and Koroiduadua’s ends on April 27, so they will be available for selection for the Rebels return match on Saturday June 1 at Lautoka’s Churchill Park.
In a statement, the SANZAAR Foul Play Review Committee chaired by Stephen Hardy and including Ofisa Tonu’u and Stefan Terblanche found Lomani and Koroiduadua guilty of physical abuse contravening Law 9.12: A player must not physically abuse anyone. Physical abuse includes, but is not limited to punching or striking with hand, arm (including stiff-arm tackle), elbow or shoulder.
Lomani’s red card incident occurred in the 56th minute of the match.
In his finding, Hardy ruled as follows:
“The entry point for the offence was 10 weeks (assessed as Top-End range for intentional and deliberate physical abuse of striking with an elbow to the back of the victim player’s head and causing injury, where the victim player was in an incredibly vulnerable position with limited ability, if any, to defend himself). The Player was given a discount for entering an early guilty plea (and other relevant mitigating factors), reducing the suspension from 10 weeks to 6 weeks. The Player is therefore suspended up to and including 26 May 2024.”
“In providing the Player the Sanction, the Foul Play Review Committee emphasised that this sort of incident is not tolerated in any form of the game.”
Koroiduadua’s incident happened in the 74th minute of the game.
In Koroirduadua’s case, Hardy ruled: “The FPRC deemed the act of foul play merited a low-end entry point of 6 weeks primarily given that the Player and victim player were “head to head” prior to the incident and that the Player’s head appears to have made limited contact with the head of the victim player and rather made contact with the chest area of the victim player. There was also no injury to the victim player.
“The Foul Play Review Committee emphasised that had there has been more forceful head contact made, the entry point may well have been higher than low-end.
“The entry point for the offence is 6 weeks.
“The Foul Play Review Committee applied a discount of 3 weeks for entering an early guilty plea (and other relevant mitigating factors including the Player’s otherwise unblemished disciplinary record), reducing the suspension from 6 weeks to 3 weeks.
Further, where a matter is determined to be low-end offending, there are off-field mitigating factors, and the sanction would be wholly disproportionate to the level and type of offending involved, a sanction below 50% of the sanction may apply. To that end, the Foul Play Review Committee considered a sanction of 3 weeks would have been wholly disproportionate to the level and type of offending involved, and applied a further reduction of 1 week to the sanction, resulting in a total sanction of 2 weeks.
“The Player is therefore suspended up to and including 27 April 2024.”
