NRL: Clash with police puts Sa's career in peril

Setaimata Sa has been charged with assaulting a police officer. Photo / Getty Images

Kiwis World Cup squad member Setaimata Sa will front the Sydney Roosters board with his immediate National Rugby League (NRL) future in the balance after he was charged with assaulting a police officer.

Roosters chief executive Steve Noyce yesterday confirmed the 21-year-old had been stood down indefinitely from all club activities and would be called before the board after being found to be in breach of his contract.

Sa was charged with assaulting police, resisting arrest, malicious damage and failure to leave a licensed premises after an alleged incident at Sydney's Coogee Bay Hotel on Sunday night.

He was granted bail and is due to appear in Waverley Local Court on September 23.

"Sa is deeply remorseful over this incident," Noyce said. "However, it has become obvious that the Sydney Roosters and the game will no longer tolerate such behaviour.

"The club is extremely disappointed with Sa's actions and apologises to our members, our sponsors and all our stakeholders."

It was a second brush with the law in as many years for the talented Samoan-born, Christchurch-raised utility, who played four tests for the Kiwis last year but was hampered by a shoulder injury during their victorious World Cup campaign.

In February, he was sentenced to 250 hours' community service by a Wollongong magistrate for fracturing a man's jaw in a street fight.

Sa claimed he was acting in self-defence and his lawyer immediately filed an appeal against the conviction and sentence which is yet to be heard.

Commenting on Sunday's incident, police said they were called to the hotel after responding to reports that a man had become abusive to staff and had smashed a glass window.

He had reportedly been refused entry because he was intoxicated.

A police statement said an officer was struck by a gate when it was pushed on to him during a struggle with Sa, who was taken to Maroubra police station about 10pm.

Noyce said Sa, who was out with his girlfriend and a group of friends, was "really shattered" and had apologised personally.

Sa was recently named in the Kiwis' 45-man squad for the end-of-year Four Nations tournament.

* Roosters' strife and times in 2009

Scorecard:
Off-field dramas 8
NRL match wins 5
Ladder position last

March 17, 2009
Hooker Jake Friend is disqualified from driving for 16 months and fined A$850 for high-level drink driving. Fined A$10,000 ($12,468) by the club and banned for two games by NRL.

March 30
Willie Mason and Nate Myles stood down for one game after breaking team rules by drinking alcohol on a non-authorised day.

May 8
Forward Anthony Cherrington pleads to assaulting his then girlfriend Monique Mears in November 2008.

May 18
Mason fined A$2000 for urinating in public after being caught by a photographer watering a wall outside a Double Bay pub.

June 20 Coach Brad Fittler fines himself A$10,000 after he was discovered by police trying to gain access to the wrong room at Townsville Holiday Inn at 3am while heavily intoxicated.

June 29
Hooker Jake Friend and winger Sandor Earl charged with assault during a nightclub incident. Matter still before the courts.

July 5
Origin star Nate Myles suspended for six games and fined A$50,000 for defecating on the floor of a Central Coast hotel in the early hours after attending a junior league function.

August 31
Centre Setaimata Sa charged with assault, resisting arrest, failure to leave a licensed premises and malicious damage after an alleged incident at a Sydney hotel.

- NZPA, AAP