A Makoura College student and a member of the Martinborough premier division side have been suspended by the Wairarapa-Bush Rugby Union's judicial committee from all rugby for the remainder of the 2010 season.
In a statement released to the Wairarapa Times-Age yesterday, WBRU chairman Graeme Reisima said a 16-year-old Makoura Collegefirst XV player appeared before the judiciary in relation to an incident in which he allegedly kicked an opposition player.
The judicial committee had found the charge proven and with it being at the serious end of the New Zealand Rugby Union's disciplinary guidelines, the player had been suspended from all rugby until the end of the 2010 season.
A Martinborough premier division player has also been given the same term of suspension after a charge of allegedly assaulting a touch judge was found proven by the judiciary. The full details of this incident have not been disclosed, but it is understood it involved the player throwing a ball at the match official.
Reisima said those two lengthy suspensions, and others which had seen five more players suspended for between two to eight weeks for offences allegedly involving punching and kicking, sent a clear message the WBRU would not tolerate such misdemeanours.
''We are not going to stand by and let these things happen, we are intent on taking the welfare of our players very seriously,'' he said.
But the WBRU boss emphasised that incidents of foul play in Wairarapa-Bush club rugby this season were down on the corresponding period last season and he hoped the severity of the suspensions would ensure that pattern remained.
''Rugby is a contact sport, but players know where they have to draw the line. There is no excuse for them to go beyond that,'' he said.
