Suspended until next year for ‘king hit’

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

A Tapuae player in Poverty Bay rugby’s Senior 1 competition has been banned until next year for a “king hit” on an opposing player.

The Poverty Bay Rugby Football Union’s judicial committee found Chayse Rurehe punched a High School Old Boys player in the head, knocking him to the ground.

Rurehe will be out of the game until May 18 next year at the earliest, or for 20 weeks of rugby, whichever period is longer.

Referee Tony Watson called off last Saturday’s match at the Oval after the incident, about five minutes from fulltime.

Tapuae won the match 24-12.

The judicial committee, chaired by Manaaki Terekia, did not find the existence of any provocation or retaliation.

“The punch had a serious effect on the victim, including a mandatory stand-down for three weeks.”

The committee said the HSOB player was in a vulnerable state and was not able to defend himself.

Rurehe “king hit” the player from behind, the committee found.

The committee found Rurehe in serious breach of the “Black Book” of rules.

“The player would have known striking a player in the head is inherently risky.”

Tairawhiti Rugby League would be provided with the decision “so that Mr Rurehe will face difficulty if he intends to play that sport in lieu of his suspension from rugby union”.

The judicial committee began with a starting point of 24 weeks’ suspension for the “serious, top-level breach”, with “numerous aggravating features”.

Those included that the offending was intentional and that it involved the use of fists as a “weapon”.

Rurehe got a discount of four weeks because, to the committee’s knowledge, he had not appeared in front of the panel before.