By JO-MARIE BROWN and JASON COLLIE
Super 12 rugby star Romi Ropati took the field against the Auckland Blues last night after escaping conviction during the week for attacking a man in a pub.
The 23-year-old Otago Highlander was discharged and ordered to pay $500 to his victim when he appeared on an assault charge in the Auckland District Court on Thursday.
The court heard that the rugby centre punched his victim, cabinet-maker Cameron Papple, in the face and head five times.
Ropati already has a conviction for breaking the jaw of a student five months after the attack on Mr Papple.
According to the summary of facts presented to the court, Ropati - who was also ordered to pay $200 in costs - attacked Mr Papple at the Carlton Tavern in Newmarket in November 1998.
He had been in the tavern with a friend, who thought they were being laughed at by Mr Papple's friends.
Mr Papple, 30, went up to Ropati and asked "in a reasonable manner" that his friend calm down, but the footballer punched him in the face and head five times and grabbed him by the neck when he fell to the floor.
Security staff had to pull Ropati - whose three brothers were all Kiwi rugby league internationals - off Mr Papple, who received bruising and cuts to his nose and lip.
In a victim impact statement Mr Papple said he did not know how he would feel if he saw Ropati again.
"It annoys me that he hit me, especially since I did nothing to provoke it," Mr Papple said.
The attack was five months before Ropati's other brush with the law, when he broke a student's jaw last May, just hours after the Highlanders lost the Super 12 final to the Canterbury Crusaders.
The Dunedin District Court heard that Ropati, out with family and friends, attacked Peter Attwood after he was called a loser.
Mr Attwood suffered two fractures to his jaw and two of his teeth were broken.
Ropati was fined $2000, wrote a letter of apology to the student and undertook an anger management programme.
Puncher Ropati back in dock
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