Wynne Gray: Extending Nonu's suspension mean spirited

Ma'a Nonu. Photo / Greg Bowker

Quibbling about Ma'a Nonu's suspension seems insignificant in the wake of the Christchurch earthquake - yet the two events are connected.

After a couple of clumsy pieces of work in the Canes' opening game against the Highlanders, Nonu's twin yellow cards and automatic ordering off found him before a Sanzar judiciary where he was suspended for a week, keeping him out of rugby up to and including February 28.

Fair cop, the punishment seemed about right.

Now, after the fearful quake and the decision to cancel the Hurricanes' match tonight with the Crusaders, the judicial goalposts have shifted.

With the Canes on a bye next week, Sanzar decided Nonu's ban should be served in round four when the Canes host the Chiefs. He appealed, then withdrew his appeal.

As much as Nonu deserved time out for his brain explosion, he should not be stretching his hamstrings for three weeks.

An act of God intruded on Sanzar's original decision, but that is life. Nonu was rubbed out of tonight's planned match, he accepted his stand-down as a consequence of his errors. Then came the quake and a compassionate draw was declared.

There was no similar compassion from Sanzar, who ruled retrospectively, changing Nonu's punishment.

I'm not defending Nonu, his work was sloppy and he deserved a sharp reminder about tidying up his game. But he also deserves a fair go, and Sanzar should have afforded him that, instead of clipping what amounts to another fortnight onto his sentence when events altered.

It's almost like suggesting that if a player is banned for a month and during that time tweaks a muscle which would have eliminated him from two games anyway, his ban should be pushed out to six weeks.

Once the earthquake hit, Sanzar needed to use some common sense.

Some seat-of-the-pants practical judgment would have helped in coping with an extraordinary time in New Zealand's sporting history.

Instead we got a clumsy decision that makes Sanzar look petty and even mean-spirited.