Samoa centre Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu suspended from all rugby after missing misconduct hearing

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/oct/02/eliota-fuimaono-sapolu-samoa-charge?newsfeed=true

"The 30-year-old had criticised the International Rugby Board for "unfair treatment" after Samoa were forced to play for the second time in four days. Fuimaono-Sapolu then compared Samoa's treatment to slavery, the holocaust and apartheid."

Can he not keep his mouth shut? He is an absolute joke, he needs to use his brain when he talks crap like this. The IRB aren't very happy...


Edit - KRD - update per Alyn's comment down-thread. Just tidying up after merging the 2 threads

Samoa centre Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu suspended from all rugby after missing misconduct hearing
by AlynDavies Yesterday at 18:38
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/rugbynation/other-rugby-world-cup-news/2011/10/04/samoa-centre-eliota-fuimaono-sapolu-suspended-from-all-rugby-after-missing-misconduct-hearing-91466-29534286/#sitelife-commentsWidget-bottom

Controversial Samoa centre Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu has been provisionally suspended after he failed to attend a World Cup misconduct hearing in Auckland today.
...

The IRB aren't happy with a lot of people at the moment.

Course he can keep his mouth shut, he has a non branded mouthguard. Clealry it has failed to prevent him talking absolute sh1t most of the RWC

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/article-1387450/Gloucesters-Eliota-Fuimaono-Sapolu-Twitter-rant.html

One of my favourites is above - his rant at Saracens - "Farrell put more bombs on us than the U.S did on Osama Bin Laden. Genocide."

Apparently judge blacket has banned him from all rugby until he turns up to a hearing...

So long as he lays off the biscuits he'll be fine

The method in which he has gone about this is poor, we can all agree.

However, there are underlying issues that are being brought to everyone’s attention here. The smaller countries are treated appallingly. Look at Namibia, they had to play 4 games in 16 days. 16 DAYS! I think the Wales/Samoa result could have been different if Samoa had a similar rest time. Don’t get me wrong, Wales are really on form at the moment and deserve their spot, but the randomness has to be taken out of the equation here and all teams need to have an even rest period.

The IRB sit idly whilst Eastern Europe, the next frontier of expansion, get occasional lip service with a Six Nations B tournament with no hope of promotion to the big time, and no one ever tours there do they except the Baa Baa’s.

I don’t think a harsh ban serves any meaningful purpose whatsoever. Eliota is a good player and his performances have been notable in this WC. He is also an intelligent man who has let his heart and passion rule over his head. He’s a qualified lawyer so can look after himself but he has gone about this the wrong way. Instead of banning him, the IRB should get him involved. He could become more of a statesman like Pichot became, he could be a voice for the Pacific Islands (and other smaller nations).

Time to open up the cosy old boys club that is the IRB.

Identical topic in teh international section.

Seriously why do we have the board subdivided like this? The majority of the few active topics in general are "international" and thats without accounting for the regular moves across.

chewed_mintie wrote:....but the randomness has to be taken out of the equation here and all teams need to have an even rest period.

To be honest that is not possible, unless you have an even number of sides in each pool, as otherwise someone has to miss out on a game (or get extra rest) due to the simple mathematics. Also you would have to have all of the games played on one day each week, as otherwise you still get the 'We played on Sunday and now Friday, so we only had a 5 day turnaround, where as they played Friday last week and Friday this week giving them an extra two days rest.' And lets be honest you hear that kind of whinging during the 6Ns and domestic competitions already.

chewed_mintie wrote:....The IRB sit idly whilst Eastern Europe, the next frontier of expansion, get occasional lip service with a Six Nations B tournament with no hope of promotion to the big time, and no one ever tours there do they except the Baa Baa’s.

To be fair Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, & Japan are paid lip-service with the second string SH tournament with no hopes of promotion to the big time. Much like Canada and the USA are also unlikely to ever be promoted to a big time tourament. That is the purpose of the RWC, to give all of these sides a shot at proving themselves in a big time competition.

chewed_mintie wrote:.... Eliota is a good player and his performances have been notable in this WC. He is also an intelligent man who has let his heart and passion rule over his head. He’s a qualified lawyer so can look after himself but he has gone about this the wrong way. Instead of banning him, the IRB should get him involved. He could become more of a statesman like Pichot became, he could be a voice for the Pacific Islands (and other smaller nations).

I agree with you to a point. But he has come out with some rather silly comments, and he does need to be slapped on the wrist so that he does engage his brain in future. After all this world cup isn't his first time of tweeting nonsence. But hopefully after having a slap on the wrist he will start to think and as you say become an ambassidor for the Islanders.

Considering he's a lawyer, you'd think he'd have more sense than to use language that will cause many offence just to inflame a worthy issue so much that most people forget the real point he was making.
If I ever need a lawyer, he'd be bottom of my list, he deserves whatever ban he's given.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/rugbynation/other-rugby-world-cup-news/2011/10/04/samoa-centre-eliota-fuimaono-sapolu-suspended-from-all-rugby-after-missing-misconduct-hearing-91466-29534286/#sitelife-commentsWidget-bottom

Controversial Samoa centre Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu has been provisionally suspended after he failed to attend a World Cup misconduct hearing in Auckland today.

The Samoa international faced alleged breaches of the Rugby World Cup/International Rugby Board code of conduct.

He accused Welsh referee Nigel Owens of bias after Samoa’s tournament-ending defeat against world champions South Africa last Friday, venting his feelings on Twitter.

Fuimaono-Sapolu had already been warned about remarks he made on the social media netwoek site earlier in the tournament.

But the 30-year-old did not appear at a scheduled hearing today in front of appointed judicial officer, England’s Judge Jeff Blackett.

Blackett adjourned the case following Fuimaono-Sapolu’s no-show, and he provisionally suspended him from all participation in rugby, pending the hearing taking place.

Samoa were eliminated from the World Cup following their 13-5 loss to South Africa. Fuimaono-Sapolu’s whereabouts are not known.

His club Gloucester, though, are likely to take a dim view of their player’s conduct as he prepares for a return to the west country and resuming his Aviva Premiership career.

In a statement, Rugby World Cup said: “The judicial officer determined that due to the player’s failure to attend the hearing he would adjourn the case to an appropriate time when he would face the charges against him.

“Pending the holding of such hearing, he ordered that Mr Fuimaono-Sapolu be provisionally suspended from all participation in the game of rugby union.

“The Samoa Rugby Union, who were responsible for the player during the Rugby World Cup tournament, accepted the single charge of misconduct against them for failure to control Mr Fuimaono-Sapolu.

“Rugby World Cup Limited accepted that the Samoa Rugby Union had made reasonable attempts to inform the player of the misconduct charges against him.

“The question of sanction will be addressed at the same hearing as that of Mr Fuimaono-Sapolu.”

Fuimaono-Sapolu questioned Owens’ neutrality for the game between Samoa and South Africa, claiming that Wales stood to benefit from a Springboks victory. He also criticised Owens’ performance.

Earlier in the competition it was decided the player should not face disciplinary action following a Twitter outburst after Samoa lost their crucial Pool D clash 17-10 to Wales.

He had accused the International Rugby Board of “unfair treatment” due to Samoa playing for a second time in four days while Wales had a week off after they faced South Africa.

He compared Samoa’s treatment to slavery, the holocaust and apartheid before issuing an apology that World Cup chiefs accepted.

This guy is better than comical Ali the Iraqi information minister!

AlynDavies wrote:This guy is better than comical Ali the Iraqi information minister!

Alternatively the case for the accused may have a fundamentally underlying truth.

The lower the seeding of teams entering the tournament the greater they are handicapped.

Doesn't justify his ranting either about that issue or Owens. He is an adult and responsible for his actions even if those actions indicate he has an infantile level of personal accountablity. He is a disgrace to rugby and should be banned.

Can we merge this with the other thread? All this was discussed on there yesterday.

Despite the relevance of the deep underlying themes beneath the stream of abuse, it's no less than he deserves. He's tainted this WC and given his side a very bad name with his generalisations. Hope he continues to not turn up at hearings because rugby doesn't need children like Sapolu.

Portnoy wrote:

AlynDavies wrote:This guy is better than comical Ali the Iraqi information minister!

Alternatively the case for the accused may have a fundamentally underlying truth.

The lower the seeding of teams entering the tournament the greater they are handicapped.

And poverty is a good explanation for theft. Doesn't give someone the right to steal.

Whatever the underlying reasons, there are ways to go about voicing concerns without infringing on agreed conduct guidelines. Namibia, USA, Tonga and Scotland (and probably others I've missed) have all cited short recovery times as an unacceptable aspect of the RWC. As far as I'm aware none of their players or officials have been charged for doing so because their complaints were not done in such a histrionic manner.

Portnoy wrote:The lower the seeding of teams entering the tournament the greater they are handicapped.

Isn't that the whole point of seeding?

If a team doesn't want to be disadvantaged then they need to improve their seeding (even Sapolu should be able to grasp that one).

One of my friends added him on facebook the other day, and he accepted today!

EFS has a point, but he definitely could have done a better job of raising it with the authorities.