Video evidence to punish rough play could soon become a staple of Wanganui rugby after an Integrity Motors Pirates player received a four week suspension at a judiciary hearing on Thursday night.
Centre S'aena Vili was found guilty of kicking the head of PGG Wrightsons-Ballance Taihape fullback Glenn Horton duringTaihape's 10-5 win on Spriggens Park last Saturday.
Pirates have the right to appeal the verdict. Vili's suspension is the fifth or sixth in Tasman Tanning Premier this season with the union also concerned with Harvey Round Motors Ratana after three of their players received a fortnight's stand down in the space of six weeks.
Jamie Hughes (continued verbal abuse of referee) and Charlie Mete (punching) got red cards on May 16 and May 23 respectively, while Kereti Tamou was sent off last weekend for reckless stomping near the head of McCarthy's Transport Ruapehu flanker Peter Rowe in the game at Ohakune.
The Vili incident was missed by referee Kawana Tihema and his touch judges, however Taihape supplied the video evidence of the incident for the hearing as they were filming the match from the grandstand.
Taping games for coaches to analyse for training purposes is a practice several of the Tasman Tanning Premier teams have adopted.
"It's a first that we've had a video [at judiciary]," said WRFU club liaison officer Paul Kenny, who saw the incident from the announcer's booth at Spriggens.
"It's usually used for coaching mechanisms, that's the purpose of it.
"If they know that video evidence is in play now, it's a hope that will deter them."
Kenny said as the WRFU was trying to get on top of ill-discipline and having video evidence on hand was a valuable tool, as it was in Super 15 and international rugby.
"Since they've introduced it in Taranaki [club rugby] ... red cards have been nil. If you do have any video evidence it would be good. We just have to have it in by a certain time." There have been 12 red and 64 yellow cards issued across all grades of Wanganui rugby this year.
