Taione to return?
16 Apr 2008
The Sharks will appeal flank Epi Taione’s six-week ban for a head-butt.
The Tongan superstar only came off the bench twice for the Sharks – against the Reds and then Hurricanes – and in the latter match he was red-carded for a head-strike on Canes’ lock Jeremy Thrush. This lengthy ban would rule out Taione for virtually the entire Super 14, and with injury concerns to forwards Johann Muller and Keegan Daniel, the Sharks need reinforcements quickly.
The appeal will be heard via teleconference tomorrow morning, and the Sharks will be hoping a significant reduction is made to the ban. The Sharks have enough quality to cover the possible omission of Daniel and Muller this weekend against the Brumbies, but a quick return for Taione towards the business end of the competition will add to their attacking dimension – which has been sorely lacking this season.
17 Comments
16 Apr 2008, 10:38 am
Doubt it will be reduced to allow him to play this weekend. Probably be reduce to 3 weeks.
16 Apr 2008, 10:49 am
Why should it be reduced at all? Because the Sharks need him? That is not a good reason.
16 Apr 2008, 11:05 am
The appeal wont hold much gravitas if it is based on a lack of personnel. If they felt the suspension was too harsh then they should have appealed a couple days after reviewing the incident.
16 Apr 2008, 11:08 am
Nooit bru! Although I’m a Sharks fan, reducing his ban would be ridiculous. We paid a dik load of cash for him only to go headbutt it away.
16 Apr 2008, 11:13 am
Have to agree that I dont want him to play after his major brain ****! What happens if it is against the Crusaders and the score is 10 all with 20 min to go? Then they will slaughter us! Im sure we have enough cover! Deysel is a good player!
16 Apr 2008, 11:23 am
The defence is he served a ban before and this therefore cannot be held against him in this case. He also personally funds rugby in Tonga, which is a positive for him.
The guy admits to having made a mistake. He is not denying that he did headbutt Thrush. (if I had a surname like that I would expect to be headbutted).
16 Apr 2008, 12:25 pm
Come on, he deserved the red and he deserved a short ban but 6 weeks was ridiculous. It should have been two. People throw punches and get away with one week, sometimes even less.
Look at the video again … “youtube.com/watch?v=T3ObiRQ7_wU”
This was not a headbutt, it was a head charge IMO, and there was equal chance of injury to the culperate as there was to the victim, which frankly, does not make it right, but was for less damage than the player would have suffered had he been given a good klap.
16 Apr 2008, 12:45 pm
Stavros…Agree with you bru problem is it looks so bad on film.
16 Apr 2008, 12:50 pm
Hey boys,
bottomline is this: Taione is a CHOP for that!! He must be on steriods, cause that was one helluva rush of blood to the head!!
Anyways, for the rugby fans with personal computers, I’ve posted a quality, hi-res desktop wallpaper of Ryan Kankowski on my wesbite. Click my nick to check it out.
16 Apr 2008, 14:16 pm
so how would they argue for a reduction ? what could one possibly say ??
16 Apr 2008, 14:22 pm
Just saw the video now. Geez, 6 weeks for that? That’s so pathetic. When I heard “headbutt” I figured it was something to the face and thus the ban would have been justified but that was just a head-first charge to the chest. If that’s considered a headbutt then I think Jerry Collins has a case against every guy that’s headbutted his fist in a game of rugby.
16 Apr 2008, 14:23 pm
Also, how was that less dangerous than the Canes #6 ramming into Beast Mtwarira a few seconds earlier in the same maul?
16 Apr 2008, 14:34 pm
Obviously Grant you are speculating on the reasons for the appeal. I find it very strange that the Sharks management didn’t file an appeal immediately after the sentence of 6 weeks. Even if the offence is a gross, clear cut case, one should always appeal. In this specific case the headbutt is rather mild and definitely worth an appeal.
16 Apr 2008, 14:55 pm
#13 they did, but SANZAR are only hearing it now!!
16 Apr 2008, 18:30 pm
Some of you have strange ideas where a head is on a human body…this ******** should have got 12 weeks. I find it quite amazing when a fan whose team has had a dirty foul recorded against them, can change from normal human beings, to being quite irrational trying to defend the indefensible simply because their team may be beaten. Wouldn’t it have been better if Coach Muir took the medicine like a man, thus showing his distaste for dirty play. It’s hard enough to play rugby according to the rulesw now, without these dirty sods trying to brutalize a player who couldn’t protect himself,
Patrick.
17 Apr 2008, 00:37 am
taione’s ban was 3 weeks, and it was increased to 6 because of an indiscretion from 2004. thats the first i have ever heard of that happening. even suspended sentences are only suspended for a maxc of 2 years. the last incident was 4 years ago!
can anyone recall an other incident from 4 years prior being held against a player? crazy stuff.
17 Apr 2008, 00:39 am
12 – well the on offence was by the sharks player and the other was by the NZ player. i though the difference was obvious
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