Sadly, rugby still doesn’t get it

The Losi Filipo case proves three things beyond reasonable doubt. One is that the courts are too willing to let violent rugby players off the hook, mostly on the dubious basis that a conviction might keep them from travelling. The second is that rugby is still failing to seriously confront appalling behaviour from its own. The sport’s bosses say all the right things, but act only under massive pressure.

And the third is that any public willingness to accept official leniency, even for the brightest stars, has dried up. Nearly everyone gets it now: talent on the rugby field is no excuse for thuggery.

Filipo’s assault on four people in Wellington last year was sustained, vicious and unprovoked.

It was at least as bad as the well-publicised assault on a policewoman by Nikolas Delegat, the son of a wealthy winemaker. Delegat’s light sentence was troubling, but at least his attempt to be let off without a conviction failed. Filipo’s bid succeeded because, Judge Bruce Davidson ruled, ‘‘his chosen career could well be outside his purview if convicted’’.

Judge Davidson is hardly alone in applying this logic. The list of New Zealand rugby stars who have received discharges without conviction or police diversions after violent assaults is depressingly long.

Putting a protective halo around a few professions – be they medicine, law or rugby – is alarming enough even if the risks are genuine.

Yet for sportspeople, they do not seem to be. University of Auckland law expert Bill Hodge says he has helped players with convictions make it to the United States, despite its strict entry standards. The New Zealand rugby league player Russell Packer is still playing in Australia after a prison sentence. Far from barring the doors, sporting bodies are often very willing to welcome violent offenders back.

After a time, that is appropriate. Young people make mistakes, even serious ones (Filipo was 17 at the time of this attack), and most athletes, especially first-time offenders, deserve an eventual route back into their sport. Yet that is very different to turning a blind eye to violence, as rugby authorities have done here. Filipo stayed on his contract until last week.

Rugby isn’t responsible for every action of its players, but it is responsible for the culture that communicates they are untouchable.