Viliami Lolohea receives 3-week suspension

Tasman winger Viliami Lolohea has been suspended from all rugby for three weeks following two yellow cards for foul play, which were both cited, in his team’s match against Taranaki in New Plymouth on 28 September.

The first incident occurred in the third minute of the match when Lolohea tackled an opposition player in the air (law 10.4i) resulting in a yellow card.

Midway through the first half, in the 23rd minute, Lolohea committed the same offence by putting the opposition player in a dangerous position by colliding with him in the air. Lolohea received his second yellow card, resulting in a red card.

New Zealand Rugby Duty Judicial Officer Helen Morgan accepted Lolohea’s admission of guilt for both offences which were each deemed to be at the lower end of the scale.

Considering Lolohea’s guilty plea, remorse and that the opposition player was not injured, the suspension for the first incident had a starting point of four weeks and was reduced to two weeks.

For the second incident, Morgan found an aggravating factor to be Lolohea had committed an almost identical offence only 20 minutes earlier, thus adding one week to the entry point.

With the same mitigating factors in play, the suspension was reduced to three weeks. Morgan ruled both sanctions to be served concurrently.

Lolohea’s suspension includes all rugby and means he is not eligible to play in Tasman’s remaining three Mitre 10 Cup round robin matches against North Harbour (4 October), Auckland (8 October) and Counties Manukau (14 October).