Samoa centre, Duncan Paia’aua, appeared before an independent judicial committee on Tuesday having received a red card in Samoa’s November international match against Georgia on 12 November, 2022. The red card was awarded pursuant to Law 9.13 (dangerous tackle).
The independent Disciplinary Committee was chaired by Antony Davies (England), joined by former international player Lawrence Sephaka (South Africa) and former referee Juan Pablo Spirandelli (Argentina).
The player accepted that he had committed the act of foul play and that the offence was worthy of a red card. The Committee applied World Rugby’s mandatory minimum mid-range entry point for foul play resulting in contact with the head. This resulted in a starting point of a six-week suspension.
The Committee took into consideration the mitigating factors and decided that the player was not entitled to the full mitigation available as the Committee noted that the player had recently received a red card for a similar offence and therefore decided that the final sanction was a four-match suspension.
The player may apply to take part in the Coaching Intervention Programme to substitute the final week of the sanction for a coaching intervention aimed at modifying specific techniques and technical issues that contributed to the foul play. Further information can be found here.
The player is therefore suspended for the following matches
- 19 November, 2022 – Romania v Samoa
- 26 November, 2022 – Toulon v Stade
- 4 December, 2022 – Toulon v Racing 92
- 10 December, 2022 – Toulon v Zebre
The player has the right of appeal within 48 hours of the issuing of the full written decision, which will appear here once published.
Click here to watch the video that explains how rugby’s disciplinary process works.
Visit World Rugby’s dedicated disciplinary process education and information page here.
World Rugby is managing the communications for all matches outside of the Autumn Nations Series. Please contact media@worldrugby.org for further information.
