Hawke’s Bay & Manawatu players cop suspensions

Hawke’s Bay’s Tony Lamborn and Manawatu’s Newton Tudreu have both received suspensions for their roles in an incident in the final round robin match of the Mitre 10 Cup on Sunday 15 October.

Both players were red carded (law.10.4e) for punching or striking opposition players in the 35th minute of the match. Hawke’s Bay won the match 36-31.

Several players became involved in the group altercation, after which Lamborn and Tudreu were both red-carded.

New Zealand Rugby Duty Judicial Officer Helen Morgan, who heard both judicial cases, described the cases against both men, to be of a serious nature.

Lamborn landed several punches that connected with the heads of opposition players. 

While considering the actual offending to be in the mid-range of seriousness, Morgan said Lamborn had not been involved in the initial incident and joining the fray afterward was a response that needed to be discouraged. Mitigating factors of a clean judicial record and acceptance of responsibility saw a reduction in the suspension from six to four weeks.

Tudreu joined the incident from a distance and struck an opponent’s head with his knee – an offence serious enough to warrant an eight week suspension.   However, taking into account Tudreu’s clean record and his admission of guilt, she reduced the suspension to five weeks.

Lamborn is suspended from all rugby for his next four matches,  Tudreu is suspended from all rugby for five scheduled matches