Rugby is back in the dock
terminated – if belatedly and reluctantly – after he was discharged without conviction following a savage attack on two women and two men.
The union finally caved in the face of continuing public outrage, perhaps recognising that doing nothing about the controversy risked causing disproportionate damage to the sport.
The case raises serious questions about the judicial response when career rugby players stand accused.
The unprovoked attack was, declared Judge Bruce Davidson, ‘‘a fairly serious case of street violence, the kind of offending that is of significant concern to the public on many levels’’.
The starting point for such an offence would generally be 18 months’ jail, but he decided convicting Filipo might end a promising rugby career.
Courts are not, the judge mused, in the business of destroying people’s career prospects.
As for the victims, well … let’s not go there. Justice is said to be blind. Sadly, at times it also seems to lack other common senses.
So the Solicitor-General’s investigation into Filipo’s discharge without conviction is appropriate.
The case yet again highlights a lack of focus on the victims of violence.
New Zealand can be accused of placing too much emphasis on sport, rugby in particular.
It is troubling if our courts are showing undue sympathy for a chosen few, compared with the hundreds of ‘‘ordinary’’ offenders appearing before them every week.
Rugby is certainly not a sport for the faint-hearted. Aggression is encouraged. Players are ‘‘softened’’ by bonecrunching tackles and set scrums can contain their own form of ‘‘justice’’.
If questioned, coaches tend to roll their eyes, concede there might have been some ‘‘niggle’’ and move on – an attitude that filters down from the very top.
Is it any wonder then that young men chosen for their love of ‘‘physicality’’ take what they are learning on to the streets?
Filipo was in the dock and his judicial treatment is now under investigation, but rugby culture itself might also bear greater scrutiny.
Who will be its next victim?