“This is a one-out-of-10 offence with a 10-out-of-10 punishment.”
The Hurricanes have dropped five members of their squad for Saturday’s Super Rugby clash with Queensland Reds. Three are All Blacks and one is set for his senior Test cap in The Rugby Championship.
Julian and Ardie Savea, Cory Jane, Victor Vito and Chris Eves have been reprimanded for missing curfew by 18 minutes whilst they were touring in South Africa.
Their tardiness saw the five players [Jane, Vito and Cory Jane are senior internationals] show up too late to the team hotel. The franchise insists the quintet returned to the hotel before midnight, were not drunk and were not involved in any incidents that could be construed as anti-social.
Hurricanes coach Chris Boyd commented ‘protocol is protocol’ and noted that the players had been disciplined internally. He continued:
“There is a lot of potential for distraction [in South Africa]. The beach is good, climate’s good, food is good and it’s warm… but they had been warned about those distractions and the fact that we needed to continue our [good] form.”
Boyd told reporters the actions of the five players was ‘potentially out of character’ but he did drop Julian Savea earlier in the season when he returned from post-World Cup duty overweight.
WATCH: Axed for being too fat, Julian Savea returns to gobble up Super Rugby hat-trick https://t.co/eoXpJ54I3s
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) April 9, 2016
Hurricanes skipper Dane Coles said the punished players felt terrible about their actions and the subsequent axing.
“They’re feeling pretty stink, as they should,” said Coles.
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