Rua faces uncertain future

An emotional Rua Tipoki says he's not sure he has a future in the professional game after receiving one of the heftiest bans in Super rugby history.

Tipoki, a three-try hero in the Blues' stroll past the Western Force on Friday night, was yesterday morning found guilty by the Sanzar judiciary of maliciously striking Force five-eighths James Hilgendorf. It banned the Blues midfielder from all rugby for 16 weeks.

The suspension is four weeks more than team-mate Troy Flavell received in 2003 for stamping on Chiefs hooker Greg Smith's head and will see Tipoki, the North Harbour captain, banned from all rugby until August 7.

It will rule Tipoki out of test contention and see him miss the NPC's opening rounds.

That prospect led him yesterday to question his professional future.

"I want to carry on playing. I am going to have a really good look at it. The fact that rugby was going so good for me would have maybe kept me in it. At the moment, I'm not sure. I would love to but there are highs and lows and the lows seem to be pretty down. I have got a family to think about," he said.

There will be plenty of encouragement for Tipoki to continue. He enjoyed a storming NPC campaign last year and was in the frame to tour with the All Blacks. He has carried on that form this season and has been the pick of the Blues backs and arguably the form New Zealand second five-eighths. He has another 24 hours to decide whether to lodge an appeal.

While both Tipoki and video evidence suggest the blow to Hilgendorf 10 minutes into the game was more clumsy than malicious, the judiciary believed he acted deliberately.

The judiciary was also aware that Tipoki was found guilty last year of punching Stormers centre Jean de Villiers.

His previous conviction and the fact Hilgendorf's eye socket was broken by the blow with possible permanent eye damage saw it hand down the tough sentence.

Yet Tipoki says there was no intention nor malice in the tackle which saw him make a secondary hit on Hilgendorf after Luke McAlister had wrapped up the Australian. Tipoki appeared to be trying to dislodge the ball but his elbow caught Hilgendorf in the face.

"I suppose the tricky bit is whether the intent was to strike James or to injure him. I went in with the purpose to check him but not to injure. You just don't go in to do that sort of damage to someone deliberately," said Tipoki.

"I tried to contact him to say sorry. I didn't get the chance but I am definitely going to do that. The incident was just another careless, sloppy action by myself which has resulted in an injury to another player and a hefty suspension for myself.

"All I can do is accept responsibility. I never intended to injure James but it's happened and I have received my punishment. I have just got to work through this the best that I can. In terms of my team, I'm really gutted that I have let them down by not being able to go to South Africa with them."