Heavy penalties have been imposed on two North Otago club rugby players after a punch-up at a senior game at the Whitestone Contracting Stadium in Oamaru last Saturday.
Unga Kefu (Old Boys) has been stood down for four weeks and Siosua Fifita (Athletic) for eight weeks.
The players also have to perform line duties and apologise to their respective teams and to the judiciary.
To avoid similar problems, the Club Council of the North Otago Union has agreed on a protocol to separate the reserves benches of opposing teams by placing them on opposite touch lines.
The incident occurred with 15 minutes to go in the match when punches were thrown on the field and the fight extended over the touchline. Fifita received the longer sentence because he joined the fight from the reserves benches.
"I was disappointed but we have to move on," chief executive of the North Otago Rugby Union Colin Jackson told the Otago Daily Times yesterday.
"We have adopted a zero-tolerance policy to incidents like this and it will continue to be applied," Jackson said.
Athletic won the top-of-the-table clash 25-13.
Ross Lory, an Athletic committee member, said his club had accepted the ruling.
"It is fair enough," he said. "We have no problem with the judicial ruling.
"The responsibility rests with the individuals. These incidents happen and they need to be dealt with."
Old Boys president Barry Meikle hoped "that all concerned will learn from this and and not overstep the boundaries of the game of rugby.
"Our club has accepted the punishment. We are happy with the outcome. The union has to clamp down on this behaviour.
"We have talked to our team and want the players to be more responsible and stick to acceptable behaviour."
Three other players were cited but there was not enough video evidence to identify them and bring them before the judiciary.
