Yarrow Stadium Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin
A Taranaki rugby player has been banned for nine weeks after flooring an opponent during post-match handshakes after a premier grade match at Yarrow Stadium.
A Spotswood United player punched a Coastal Rugby player, who was taken by ambulance to Taranaki Base Hospital examined, then later discharged after the June incident.
The Taranaki Rugby Football Union had previously declined to reveal the penalty the offending player received because of an ongoing police investigation.
Chief executive Mike Sandel said a judicial panel with three members had imposed the ban which was "towards the upper limit" of New Zealand Rugby sanctions for striking a player.
"That was a confidential process and I won't be naming the player involved."
The player was sanctioned for misconduct under section 10 of NZR's disciplinary rules which captures "conduct on or off the field during or in connection with a match including (without limitation) any tunnel, changing rooms and/or warm-up areas".
And in this case, the panel looked to section nine of the rules - sanctions for foul play - to find an indication of what the penalty would've been if the offending had occurred during the game.
Under law 9.12, a player must not physically abuse anyone with offences ranging from biting, stamping, eye-gouging to striking with the head among others.
Penalties range at the low-end from a two-week ban to a suspension of 18-plus weeks for offending at the top-end with a maximum penalty of 208 weeks.
For punching or striking a player with the hand, arm, elbow or shoulder top-end offences attract a ban of 10-plus weeks with a maximum penalty of a year-long suspension.
It is understood the offending Spotswood player's suspension will carry through to next season.
By comparison in July, a Canterbury rugby coach was suspended for 15 weeks or matches for misconduct towards a referee.
The coach had been accused of assaulting a referee in Ashburton on 20 July, at the end of the senior B semi-final match between Hampstead and Celtic.
A Mid Canterbury Rugby Union judicial hearing found the coach guilty of using threatening words or actions and grabbing the referee's shirt.
The maximum penalty for the coach's behaviour was 23 weeks suspension.
Sandel said the Coastal player who had been hit in Taranaki "was quite within his rights to take the incident up with the police" which he believed he had done.
Police told RNZ "the investigation into this matter remains ongoing - charges have not yet been filed".
Spotswood United and Coastal Rugby have been asked for comment.