I grew up playing rugby, it’s a great sport and unfortunately is largely responsible for my damaged broken down body. I’ll admit it was ably assisted by a few race cars into tree moments, but I’m primarily blaming rugby.
In the decade or so that I played with the odd shaped ball I’ve never see anyone do what Australian Kava Lumanuvao did. He pulled a knife out during an ill tempered game.
Everyone who’s played the game has taken part in a game or two that was not played in strict accordance to the rules. The occasional punch is thrown in the scrum, maybe a high tackle or two and even a surreptitious stamp of boot on thigh during a maul.
They are a not big deal and afterwards in the bar everyone has a pint and it’s all forgotten untill we play again. All forgiven, but it does get filed away should the opportunity to get even present itself in the future.
It was during a big game, the league semifinal where Lumanuvao’s team, The Chaffey Titans, were taking on Mildura Tigers for a place in the Sunraysia Rugby League final in Victoria, Australia. It seems a Tigers player laid a late hit on a Lumanuvao and in finest Australian/rugby tradition a brawl broke out involving all thirty players on the field.
Unusual, but ultimately nothing that AP is interested in yet.
Then Lumanuvao walked to his car, grabbed a knife and returned to the brawl with it in his hands. With all the testosterone and adrenalin flying about the urge is understandable, actually walking to your car to pull the knife out shows very questionable judgment.
Before he got back to the brawl with the knife he was stopped and disarmed by his coach and team mates. I imagine everyone was very, very focused on stopping the fight when the knife showed up. No one was injured with the weapon, but the game was abandoned and the Tigers awarded the win and a place in the final.
Lumanuvao quite rightly received a lifetime ban, the player that started it with the late hit was banned four weeks and a third player than ran onto the field to take part in the fight (and played for neither team on the field) was banned for 17 months.
Victoria Rugby League chairman Greg Brentnall said violent behaviour will not be tolerated in its leagues. “Whilst it is disappointing that an incident such as this occurred in the first place, we are fully supportive of the strong, decisive and timely action taken,” he said in a statement.
A player pulled a knife in response to an on-the-field incident and the league chairman is “disappointed”, I love Australian understatement.