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A brawl breaks out between Kelston Boys High School and Auckland Grammar players - Source: ONE News -
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The backlash continues over the severity of the penalties given to Kelston players involved in the Auckland high school rugby brawl .
Five Kelston Boys High School players were suspended for periods of ten to 16 months, compared with the four Auckland Grammar suspensions of just six weeks.
All Black great Michael Jones is questioning the disparity in punishments.
A member of the of rugby union disciplinary committee says it was privy to information that was not in the public domain, when deciding on penalties.
But, Michael Jones says the committee needs to be open about how it made its judgement.
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below.
Security will be in place at the final of the Auckland secondary
schools rugby competition on Saturday to prevent any repeat of the
brawl that erupted in last week's game.
But organisers of the Eden Park game say they are not expecting any trouble.
Organiser of the tournament Mike McCahill says they are not expecting a repeat of that kind of violence.
He says security at the game will be the same as it is at the Air New Zealand Cup.
Auckland Grammar will be without four of its star players after they were suspended.
Auckland Grammar will square off against Mt Albert Grammar at
2.30pm at Eden Park.
Were the bans handed to Kelston Boys High School and
Auckland Grammar fair and proportionate? Leave your comments on the
messageboard below.
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Add a Comment:
Post new commentfonzy03 said on 2009-08-24 @ 12:38 NZDT: Report abusive post
I totally agree that the final decision is unfair. You play a sport and you fight you are to pay the price, there was no fair judgement made here, but the fact that Auckland Grammar players were let off too easily, I think that it is more to do with the status of the schools, not the players actions. The board needs to look into their decisions and rethink it over before it gets out of hand.
bobby75 said on 2009-08-23 @ 18:33 NZDT: Report abusive post
I concur with "hypocrite" one of the board members has a son at grammar which it a huge conflict of interest. it is blatantly obvious this decision was bias in favour of the more connected school, the whiter school. One of the boys at kelston had a future contract in rugby lined up which is now in jeopardy .
jwgh said on 2009-08-21 @ 12:19 NZDT: Report abusive post
So from what I heard they based these suspensions off the video camera footage and the actions displayed by those on the video camera. I am pretty sure the the person operating the video camera would not have caught every angle of this brawl. Does that mean that what they didn't see won't get punished. It takes two to tango. I say get rid of both teams next year. Set the bar. If you screw up your done.
hypocrite said on 2009-08-21 @ 11:45 NZDT: Report abusive post
I think the decison they had made its so unfair. It's all about 'Races'. Brown n White
jojac said on 2009-08-21 @ 11:15 NZDT: Report abusive post
Regarding the incident between Auckland Grammar and Kelston boys - it is important that all violent incidents are addressed and appropriate punishments meted out. However, the disparity in punishments handed out in the case does cause eyebrows to be raised. The Kelson boys HAVE been hard done by. What is it the NZ Rugby Union preaches - that RETALIATION should be treated in the same manner as those who instigate the fracas. Some consistency PLEASE !!