By Lorraine Genia – EM TV Sports, Port Moresby
Oceania Rugby Tournaments Director, Wayne Schuster, today confirmed the suspension of Tahitian loose-head prop, Martin Taeae, after a tip tackle against Sarufa Kingsley in Saturday’s match against Papua New Guinea.
Under World Rugby laws and regulations, Taeae had breached a section in regulation 17 addressing dangerous tackling of an opponent.
Taeae was yellow carded; however the tackle was sighted and brought to the attention of the judicial committee.
Schuster confirmed earlier today that the governing body’s decision was to suspend the player for a total of four weeks.
“Instances do occur whether intentional or not – however [the judicial committee] was conclusive that the player in question put on a tip tackle which world rugby is clamping down on,” he said.
Tahiti’s team manager, Charles Tauzet, confirmed Taeae’s high tackle and further added it was not intentional, and that wasn’t the style of rugby Tahiti played.
“We think it’s a little bit out, as Tahiti never plays dirty and have never a got a red card in any competition,” Tauzet said.
Wesley Vali was also victim to a tackle above the line of the shoulders and Derek Paraka to a number of shoulder charges before scoring the fourth try for PNG on Saturday.
Pukpuks Coach, Sydney Wesley, could not comment any further saying “this is something for the guy with the whistle and the touch judges to handle. We’ve also got someone responsible for sighting so I can’t comment on that. Things like that happen in rugby, but there are people in charge of that.”
In the meantime, games will continue as planned. Tahiti will play Solomon Islands tomorrow at 1.00pm and Papua New Guinea will take on American Samoa tomorrow at 3.30pm, with the matches televised live and streamed online through the EMTV website.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=guJEYQDZax4%3Ffeature%3Doembed%26wmode%3Dopaque%26showinfo%3D0%26showsearch%3D0%26rel%3D0
