Hard hitting London Welsh number eight Chris Hala’ufia today faces a discplinary hearing for the straight red card he was shown when his side took on Leicester Tigers in the Aviva Premiership recently. It was the same match in which he tackled a streaker.
*UPDATE: Hala’ufia has been suspended for 5 weeks after pleading guilty
Tongan born Hala’ufia has a bit of history with big tackles, and his disciplinary record will no doubt work against him when it comes to sanctioning in front of the RFU hearing.
Despite the big hit appearing to have caused most of the damage, he has actually been charged with striking an opponent, contrary to Law 10.4 (a).
The massive tackle knocked Tigers number eight Laurence Pearce to the floor, legally or not. Hala’ufia then took it upon himself to shove Pearce’s head into the turf, possibly displeased with his view that he stayed down for too long. Or, it was just a big ‘f*** you’.
The referee checked the incident to look at the tackle, which in itself ran the risk of being penalised, but was alerted to the shove to the head, so was given little choice but to red card Hala’ufia. It’s the type of thing that you really just don’t want to see on a rugby field.
Earlier in the match a streaker took to the field, so Hala’ufia delivered a huge hit on him too.
*UPDATE: Chris Hala’ufia was today suspended for five weeks after pleading guilty to striking an opponent, contrary to Law 10.4 (a). Antony Davies, sitting as a Sole Judicial Officer at the London Bloomsbury Holiday Inn, imposed the sanction which will encompass the remaining two rounds of the Aviva Premiership and the start of the 2015-16 season.
You can view official highlights from the match on page two of this post, and more of Hala’ufia’s big tackles in the Related Posts, listed below the video.
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