So much for Guilford returning the recent faith shown to him
by The Crusaders and NZRU, eh?
His agent has been sniffing around for a lucrative off-shore
deal.
Guildford has hardly fired a shot in the Super 15.
His ‘stock’
on the field has been falling faster than Hanover Finance.
Sadly for Zac the news out of Europe is French champs Stade
Francais don’t want him in their ranks.
Who blames the French, Japanese likewise?
He’s an off-field liability and prospective clubs treat
drunken escapades like his far more harshly there than here in N.Z where he gets paid to go to rehab.
England must be the only bolt-hole left for him once he turns his back on N.Z Rugby.
A former Maori All Black Lindsay Raki was sentenced today to
two years and nine months in jail for stealing pokies grant money totalling
more than $300,000.
The intended recipients of the grants that ended up in his
account were the Manurewa High School Rugby Academy and Counties Manukau Youth
Development Inc.
Both groups were set-up to promote Youth Rugby.
Raki, an accountant, was the Academy's financial controller.
Raki was described by the judge as: “A dishonest witness who
has in part woven an account that might accord with some legitimate
documentation he can produce, and then created documents after the event to
fill in the gaps and back up his story.”
No mention has been made as to restitution, $300,000 is a
hell of a lot of money to embezzle.
With good behaviour he’ll be out in little over a year.
I would consider a year in low security jail for $300,000 –
wouldn’t you?
SunLive29th April 2013 Te Puke rugby player Simon Chisholm was sent off
for punching another player on Saturday in his second game after spending
months recovering from a brain injury received in a king hit by another player
last year.
Simon was
red carded for allegedly landing a straight left following earlier unsavoury
incidents that were not picked up by match officials, according to a BOP Rugby
report.
Te Puke player Simon Chisholm was red carded
for punching another player at a game on Saturday.
Te Puke
Sports president Ashley Peat confirmed the red carding today, but didn’t see
the game and hasn’t spoken to Simon.
The match
between Tauranga Sports and Te Puke Sports at Tauranga Domain was won 39-15 by
Tauranga.
Last year
Simon pressed charges after he received a king hit during a match against Te
Puna.
Te Puna
player Uenuku Pieta, 22, a farmhand, was charged with assault with intent to
injure and was sentenced last month to 200 hours’ community work. He was also
ordered to pay $500 reparation and received a year-long ban from playing rugby.
Tauranga
Sports president Trevor Grainger said after the game on Saturday the player was
“okay”, and the incident is "ironic" given what happened to Chisholm
last year.
Te Puke
Sports vice-president Graham Donald says the club will not comment until after
Chisholm’s case is heard before the Bay of Plenty Rugby Union judiciary
committee this week.
Boy did I get it wrong backing Simon Chisholm in a prior article.
I tried to treat him as a hapless victim of needless on-field violence.
When in contrast and ironically he is made of the same cloth as the person who he took to court.
Just a day after Hurricanes and All Black winger Julian
Savea appeared in Wellington court facing common assault charges we have news
of yet another top rugby player facing his own day in front of a judge.
Blues back Francis Saili will get his time in Auckland court
tomorrow, facing driving charges.
Saili was caught driving without a licence which he lost
because of demerit points and speeding tickets.
Coach Sir John Kirwan says Saili has apologised to his
teammates and will face some internal discipline.
Woop de doo.
A Danish soccer player lost his place in the national team
over a similar driving offence.
It's called no tolerance.
What is it with these arrogant sods?
Do they think they are immune the laws of the land simply
because of sporting notoriety – being big fish in a small pond?
Here’s what the naïve but well-meaning anti-violence group
has to say on their web site….
In a sports-mad country like New Zealand, sportspeople can
play an influential role in promoting a culture of non violence.
The Campaign is working with sports clubs all over New
Zealand at a national and local level, in partnership with family violence
networks.
Sports clubs and their leaders and players are influential
in their own communities. Role models can talk to younger players and build a
community of support that says no to family violence.
It's not OK messages can strengthen efforts to improve
behaviour on the field and on the sideline.
Why the hell would any group trying to promote anti-violence
go anywhere near a toxic group like rugby union given their sordid record?
Rugby and violence in New Zealand are intertwined.
The predictable from Steve Tew (a.k.a Spew) chief of the
NZRU was “Without judging the rights or wrongs of this case, we are concerned
that this is another incident involving a young player.We need to find out whether we are doing
enough to help these young men cope with the pressures of the professional game.”
Yet again it’s the ‘pressure of the professional game’ that
we are to believe is the root cause of so-many players going off the rails.
In what must be a world-breaking criminal research, the NZRFU
have concluded there is a causative link between playing sport at a high level
and assaulting people, getting pissed-up etc.
The same sort of pressure that apparently doesn’t exist in any other top code like say
N.Z Soccer players who by my recollection have never been involved in a single
off-field incident, yet arguably play at a far higher level of sport on a
global scale than any rugby player.
The pressures of competing at The Olympics that have
resulted in all those assaults by our rowers and triathletes – not!
When is the NZRFU going to break-through its alcoholic like
haze and admit “Our game has a serious problem”?
It's not O.K to blame the profession 'rugby player' as an excuse for family violence.
