Rugby player-coach suspended for 18 months

Chanel Huddleston has been suspended for physical and verbal abuse of a referee. Photo / File

Former Hawke's Bay Tuis women's rugby team player-coach Chanel Huddleston has been suspended from playing for 18 months after a violent end to a recent club game.

Hawke's Bay Rugby Union's club development officer Gary Macdonald confirmed yesterday Huddleston had been banned for physical and verbal abuse of a referee in her Napier Technical club side's June 20 match against Havelock North at Whitmore Park. One of No8 Huddleston's teammates, lock Tiana Winiata, was suspended for 12 months for physical abuse of the ref in the same game.

"We will be appealing both sentences but I don't want to comment any further as the matter is now in the hands of our lawyer," Huddleston said.

Mr Macdonald said the incidents occurred in the second half of the game. At that stage the match was being controlled by Havelock North manager Blair Heasley, who is also a referee, as the original referee had retired injured at halftime.

Mr Macdonald said Havelock North were awarded a win by default as the Tech coach, Te Awa School principal Tim Van Zyl, had taken his team off the field in the 25th minute.

A new entrants teacher at Henry Hill School, Huddleston, was the Tuis player-coach last year and she holds the record for the most first class appearances for the Tuis with 64 from 2001 until last year. Earlier this year she played for the Kiwi Ferns rugby league side at the Auckland Nines after debuting for the team last year.

Huddleston is also a former Aotearoa Sevens rep who has played for the team around the globe. Her and Winiata's bans are the biggest for Hawke's Bay women's club players.

The previous biggest was a 10-week ban their clubmate and experienced Hawke's Bay Tuis halfback Gemma Woods received last year for punching a spectator after being red-carded in a game.

Mr Macdonald is still awaiting the paper work related to the outcome of an appeal the MAC Sports Association made after their premier team lost four competition points following a judicial hearing related to the throwing of a water bottle at referee Stu Catley after a Flaxmere Park-hosted Maddison Trophy first round match against Taradale on May 30.

Association president and MAC premier team head coach Anthony Morley said an individual rather than his entire club should have been penalised for the incident.

This violence is part of a national trend in New Zealand rugby and in the latest Auckland incident last weekend teenage players and parents, some armed with umbrellas, brawled for 20 minutes at a school game. More than 40 people were involved in what one eye-witness called the "havoc" that broke out during an under-15 clash between Otahuhu College and Tangaroa College at the Otahuhu Rugby Ground.

A 15-year-old Otahuhu player was knocked out when punched in the head by a Tangaroa College supporter during the violence and he remained in hospital last night. It is understood the person who struck the boy is a Tangaroa player's relative.