Southland captain Jamie Mackintosh will miss this weekend's ITM Cup match against Hawke's Bay after copping a one-week ban for striking.
New Zealand Rugby duty judicial officer Nigel Hampton QC accepted a guilty plea from Mackintosh, who was cited for an off-the-ball incident in the 24th minute in his side's 61-7 loss to Otago last Saturday.
Mackintosh was issued a red card for the infringement, in which he crashed his forearm into the head of Otago prop Hisa Sisagi. Southland were trailing 20-7 at the time.
Mackintosh accepted responsibility for what had occurred, opting to take an early guilty plea to expedite the judicial process.
Mr Hampton found this to be a lower end offence with an indicative starting point of a two week suspension. However, after finding no aggravating factors needing to be taken into account and noting the player's admission, plus his long and distinguished playing record, he applied a one week discount to the period of suspension.
