5 Oct 2011

IRB suspend Samoa centre from all rugby

7:12 am on 5 October 2011

The Samoa centre Eliota Sapolu Fuimaono says he's willing to risk his playing career in order to achieve "justice" for the smaller nations after he was suspended from all rugby when he failed to appear at a judicial hearing in Auckland yesterday

Sapolu Fuimaono had been summoned to the hearing after he labelled Welsh referee Nigel Owens "biased' and a "racist" on social networking website Twitter following his side's 13-5 loss to South Africa on Friday.

The International Rugby Board says the hearing was adjourned when the player failed to appear, and then suspended him until another hearing could be held.

But the 30-year-old Gloucester centre told Television New Zealand yesterday that he had no idea when the hearing was scheduled.

Fuimaono says the IRB had been "blatantly unfair" with their treatment of tier two nations and did not think he would get a fair hearing from them.

The Samoan had previously apologised and escaped punishment for an earlier outburst on Twitter in which he compared the scheduling of Samoa's World Cup matches to the holocaust.

Match scheduling has been a controversial issue at the World Cup and the IRB has been criticised for giving the smaller nations shorter turnaround times between matches.

Fuimaono says the IRB are treating Tier Two or the smaller teams like rubbish and he wants the next generation of Samoan rugby players to be given a level playing field.