• Help Support The Rugby Forum :

Mark Cueto Cited By RFU

Thats either deliberate gouging or Cueto trying out a face lock.

Anything less than 16 weeks will be a PR disaster for the RFU especially after all the inches given to eye gouging in the UK and Irish sports press.

EDIT: That said if Judge Blackett sees Cueto eating a biscuit make that 48 weeks with NO PAY!
 
just read up about this. Cueto doesn't come across as a dirty player, but i guess if you do the crime do the time (whether or not the time is justified is another thing - i'm not too clued up with the rules of punishment but judging by your reactions i presume he aint had enough :p) Lucky guy i guess.
 
I think the 18weeks would have been fair - shouldn't have been halved really.
Mitigation or whatever, I presume Day said there was nothing in it? and they took into account his charity work and all the coaching sessions he does at local clubs in his own time - none of that should count, really - he still did it
 
Oh well, Strettle it is then. That's England ******.

Cuetos let himself down. And Sale. I imagine Steve Diamond is kicking his arse from here to Timbuktu.
 
Hopefully Johnson doesn't hold it against him too much - I imagine Johnson can hold a helluva grudge though...

Hopefully we get Simpson-Daniel, but him being out injured atm doesn't help :(
 
This is an effing disgrace.

► Callum Jennings got five years.

► Maidstone Rugby club got docked 50 points and copped a hefty fine.

What the God's name does an elite player have to do to get this kind of punishment; take an AK-47 onto the field and go on a shooting spree?

Is this yet another example of Judge Blackett's scattergun approach to justice? Do the RFU judiciary understand the meaning of the expression "double-standard? They should hang their heads in shame.

I detect the foul odour of expediency!
 
Well thats a blow. Simpson-Daniel or Strettle it is i guess. Hopefully Johnson wont hold it against Cueto though, he will be needed for New Zealand. He can only blame himself though!
 
This is an effing disgrace.

► Callum Jennings got five years.

► Maidstone Rugby club got docked 50 points and copped a hefty fine.

What the God's name does an elite player have to do to get this kind of punishment; take an AK-47 onto the field and go on a shooting spree?

Is this yet another example of Judge Blackett's scattergun approach to justice? Do the RFU judiciary understand the meaning of the expression "double-standard? They should hang their heads in shame.

I detect the foul odour of expediency!

The RFU have always had a bias towards the EPS and capped England players (much the same as any Union with their test players I notice these days - John Hayes stamping 2 years ago, anyone?).

Institutionalised elitism from the secret handshake societies that run the game.
 
Proves once and for all that citing should be administrated by the iRB and no one else. The inequalities in players' punishments is the single biggest disgrace to the sport, and much as I admire Cueto in general, if Attoub's getting 70 weeks then Cueto's got to go for a long time as well. 9 weeks, which reflects the ban Sale gave him anyway, is no time at all.
 
I honestly can't believe this is happening. This STINKS.
 
What the God's name does an elite player have to do to get this kind of punishment; take an AK-47 onto the field and go on a shooting spree?

Ah come on now Cooky ...An international player taking such an inaccurate weapon onto the field suggests that he was never intending on shooting anybody..merely having a laugh until some foolish supporters dove into the path of the bullets and thus turned a piece of on field showmanship into a tragic accident.

However
 
Proves once and for all that citing should be administrated by the iRB and no one else. The inequalities in players' punishments is the single biggest disgrace to the sport, and much as I admire Cueto in general, if Attoub's getting 70 weeks then Cueto's got to go for a long time as well. 9 weeks, which reflects the ban Sale gave him anyway, is no time at all.

Your idea is a good one, or maybe a global independent body ... stating the obvious here, but if the elite players can get away with light bans, it doesn't send the right message to the kids that play the game ... it would be interesting to know what this "compelling mitigation" is, and why it justifies the halving of the normal punishment.

... at least Sale stood him down immediately, and maybe the clubs could do more to prevent these offenses from occurring by putting an instant dismissal clause in the players contracts, if players are found guilty. If the various players associations also pushed for this, i'm sure these types of incidents would drop dramatically
 
Ah come on now Cooky ...An international player taking such an inaccurate weapon onto the field suggests that he was never intending on shooting anybody..merely having a laugh until some foolish supporters dove into the path of the bullets and thus turned a piece of on field showmanship into a tragic accident.

However

:lol:
 
Your idea is a good one, or maybe a global independent body ... stating the obvious here, but if the elite players can get away with light bans, it doesn't send the right message to the kids that play the game ... it would be interesting to know what this "compelling mitigation" is, and why it justifies the halving of the normal punishment.

... at least Sale stood him down immediately, and maybe the clubs could do more to prevent these offenses from occurring by putting an instant dismissal clause in the players contracts, if players are found guilty. If the various players associations also pushed for this, i'm sure these types of incidents would drop dramatically

i'm pretty sure sale only stood him down to make it look better for the hearing. Same with Harry Ellis a few years back.
 
The details of the hearing are released tomorrow, but some newsapaper (mirror?) said that Day wrote a letter saying that while they did scrap he didn't feel anything in his eye, and there was no contact blah blah blah
Obviously bull crap, but he wanted to help his friend, and seems to have done the job...
 
For anyone interested here's Days statements (made an original one when Cueto was first cited:
"I made a tackle on Mark Cueto and
ended up on my back. I felt a strike to the back of my head and reacted to this
strike assuming this was Mark Cueto and we wrestled to the ground ….. As we
were getting up, I felt a hand push me in the face. It was a pushing motion from
an open hand and I felt no contact with my eye area. This incident then
descended into a melee and the incident was over."

Then a second one for the actual trial thing:
"I
understand that the photographic evidence appears damning, but that was not
my recollection of the event. I can only describe what I felt at the time of a split
second occurrence. Pressure was not sustained into the eye socket. Instead a
"pushing" motion was experienced consistent with a shove to the face. If a
finger inadvertently entered my eye then it was, in my opinion, accidental and
was certainly not my lasting memory of the event. I have had the unfortunate
experience of being "gouged" before, but this was not in any way similar".


The whole report is here:
http://www.rfu.com/TheGame/Discipli...1/Judgments/cuetosalesharksjudgmentapr11.ashx
 

Latest posts

Top