Nabura banned for six weeks for kick
Rookie Highlanders wing Tevita Nabura has been suspended for six weeks after kicking Waratahs wing Cameron Clark in the face.
Nabura was red carded in the 19th minute of last weekend’s 41-12 loss to the Waratahs in Sydney, after he came down with a high ball and collected Clark in the face with his boot.
The Sanzaar foul play committee accepted a guilty plea from Nabura for contravening Law 9.12: kicking, suspending him for six weeks, up to and including July 6.
Committee chairman Nigel Hampton, who assessed the case with Stefan Terblanch and John Langford, said the foul play merited a top-end entry point of 12 weeks due to Nabura making contact with Clark’s head.
‘‘As it is required to do, the committee assessed that, given the comparative lack of force of the actual contact to the head and the lack of any injury to the other player, the entry point should remain at 12 weeks.
‘‘However, taking into account mitigating factors including the player’s excellent record, his remorse, his inexperience and his guilty plea at the first available opportunity, the foul play review committee reduced the suspension by 50 per cent to a sanction of six weeks.’’
Nabura, who was making just his third Super Rugby start, was seen as an inexperienced player making a misguided effort to both try and regain balance in the air, and warding off the approaching player, Hampton said in a statement.
The 25-year-old Fijian-born wing’s judicial hearing was originally slated for Sunday night, at the same time as Crusaders prop Owen Franks was handed a two-week ban for striking.
However, Nabura requested his hearing be delayed while he flew back to New Zealand from Sydney.
Tevita Li has replaced Nabura on the left-wing for the Highlanders’ match against the Reds in Brisbane tonight.
Nabura was the first Highlander to be red carded since Jason Emery in 2016. Scott Curry and Tim Mikkelson have played a key role in coach Clark Laidlaw handing the New Zealand Sevens co-captaincy to a new duo.
Sione Molia and Kurt Baker will take the co-captaincy reins for New Zealand’s final two tournaments of the World Series season, in London and Paris.
They will lead a side featuring a number of young, inexperienced talent, but also bolstered by the return of Regan Ware in the backline.
Curry and Mikkelson are the old heads in the sevens squad, and have been cocaptains for much of Laidlaw’s tenure. But the pair were keen for Laidlaw to test a new pairing, building the overall leadership skills in the team.
‘‘They were probably the ones who convinced me to do it in the end,’’ Laidlaw said of the change in co-captaincy.
‘‘The theory has come from working with our sports psychologist about how we accelerate the leadership within the team and management.’’
Laidlaw said Curry and Mikkelson were keen to see how Molia and Baker would go, and have seamlessly slotted into a mentoring role.
It may only be a temporary move, but Laidlaw is keen to see how the players will grow from the opportunity.
Molia slotted into the role for the Singapore tournament and excelled, having become one of the key cogs of the New Zealand side over the past two years.
Also joining the side are Bailey Simonsson, Salesi Rayasi and Jona Nareki, all in line to make their second tournament appearance, with a number of players unavailable.
Andrew Knewstubb, Vilimoni Koroi, Amanaki Nicole, Ngarohi McGarvey-Black, Joe Ravouvou and Joe Webber were all unavailable for selection.
New Zealand are third in the World Series, behind leaders Fiji and secondplaced South Africa, but head to Europe hoping to secure their second victory on the series this season.
Despite an inconsistent campaign thus far, the team won the Commonwealth Games gold medal, which was a key focus, and is now building toward the World Cup in San Francisco in July, another of its major goals.
‘‘We had the three key focuses this season, which was the Commonwealth Games, the World Cup, and centralisation.
‘‘Two of the three have gone brilliantly, and we’re coming up to the third. That’s the focus now, but obviously we want to go and win these two tournaments to build up to that.’’
He said the players had been working on developing their game further since the Gold Coast victory, and will reveal some of their new tricks in Europe.