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June 10 – MTN Lions flank Michael Rhodes’s Super Rugby season is over – but he hopes to be back for some of the three matches of the Currie Cup campaign he has been suspended for. His suspension was until July 31.
Southern hemisphere rugby body SANZAR has confirmed that Rhodes has appealed his two-month suspension from rugby for a dangerous tackle in a Super 15 game last month. His appeal will be heard on Tuesday.
The 23-year-old Rhodes was banned by SANZAR for grabbing Otago Highlanders winger Siale Piutau around the neck and flipping him over at a ruck. SANZAR said in its original decision that Rhodes' actions put Piutau "at serious risk of injury."
On Friday, SANZAR said Rhodes will not challenge that the tackle was dangerous, but rather the length of the suspension.
Rhodes was found of using a "dangerous headlock" to pull Highlanders wing Siale Piutau out of a ruck in his team’s 26-22 victory in a Super Rugby match in Dunedin on May 28. He was suspended from all rugby until the end of July, which would have seen him miss the last two Super rugby matches as well as the Currie Cup encounters against the Pumas, Griquas and the Leopards. The Currie Cup season starts on July 16
The incident, which occurred with the Highlanders hot on attack and the score locked at 19-19, sparked a free-for-all with several players joining in the punching.
Judicial officer Nick Davidson said that Rhodes had flipped Piutau over in a dangerous manner, "placing his head and neck at serious risk of injury", and that video evidence had showed Piutau "in a highly compromised and dangerous position".
Rhodes was then suspended for six matches but for the ban to be effective it would encompass all rugby until July 31, Davidson said. Rhodes was granted the right of appeal,
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