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A post-tournament kava session that ended in an ugly pre-dawn brawl has left a Northland rugby player facing court charges and the possibility of a 12-month stand-down from the Northland Rugby Union.
Eroni Gadolo was charged with injuring with intent following a scuffle at 3.45am at a Queenstown bar after a Fijian kava session ended in a violent altercation.
Now he will also face a formal NRU investigation with chief executive Rob Malone hinting it was likely he would face some severe repercussions.
"We haven't had the full story and we have to be careful because there are formal police charges involved, but we take a very dim view of this sort of behaviour," Malone said. "We have to be mindful that he was representing Northland when the incident took place and that reflects on all of us.
"We are not happy with what has happened. We might be looking at something like a 12-month stand- down from all representative selections," he said.
Details are sketchy, but reports from Queenstown say that Gadolo was out celebrating with several members of the Northland sevens rugby team and other rugby players from elsewhere who had been playing at the national tournament at the weekend.
A kava session followed but finished abruptly when Gadolo became involved in an incident with a member of the kava drinking party. In the ensuing tussle Gadolo allegedly headbutted a man who then laid a complaint with police.
Malone said a formal review of the incident would reveal the full story, but that he had set a strict "zero tolerance" policy for all NRU representatives to adhere to to deal with this exact sort of problem.
"These types of incidents are not acceptable if the union wants to continue to improve its public image. I hope this is a one-off incident, however things like this damage our brand. We will continue to have a 'zero tolerance' to this type of issue," he said.
- NZPA
