A remorseful Epi Taione has apologised to his Sharks team-mates for a costly rush of blood to the head during the 13 -13 draw with the Hurricanes in Wellington on Saturday.
The massive Tongan had been making a telling second-half impact as a substitute, having come on for flank Keegan Daniel when, at a ruck, he lunged head-first into substitute lock Jeremy Thrush in front of referee Paul Marks, who wasted no time in reaching for his red card write Mike Greenaway on IOL.
The Sharks played the last 14 minutes of the match with 14 men, and in the end were fortunate to hold on for the draw.
Taione will almost surely be suspended when he faces a disciplinary hearing in Christchurch on Monday, with the same panel hearing the case against Lions prop Ross Geldenhuys, who was cited for “use of the knee” during his team’s loss to the Highlanders, who are the Sharks’ opponents on Friday.
Sharks captain Johann Muller said the sincerely repentant Taione had asked to speak to the team during their post-match kontiki (the traditional post mortem-social).
“He is not a happy fellow,” Muller said. “He said he could not imagine a worse scenario than being sent off when he had only just joined us.”
On Sunday, a crestfallen Taione said: “I just got carried away. I was trying too hard. The coach had said at half-time that we had to start cleaning out the Hurricanes guys, who were coming over the top of the rucks to slow our ball down. And when I saw exactly that happening, I wanted to get the guy out of the way.
“The idea was not to harm the player, but the execution was reckless – I don’t deny that.”
Taione, a major Sharks off-season signing, joined the team late into the Super 14 because of commitments to his former Japanese club.
The explosive power of the 28-year-old is key to the Sharks’ plans, and they will be hoping that he will still have a role to play later in their five-match tour.
Taione will argue that he and the Sharks had already been punished by the sending-off, which probably cost them a win.
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Should have thought about that BEFORE you did it, MATE..as they say – jammer kom altyd te laat…its gonna take a bit more of just “sorry” for me to 4-give him..The Wrath if Ice is on you… 😈
Why could he not use his hands to get the guy out of the way…what the F?? Sorry-ass excuse. 😕
If I used my head to clean like he does, I’d concuss myself every time I tidy up the kitchen 😉
Or break all the crockery… 🙄 😉
i dont know, maybe we are being a bit hard on him,i mean no-one wrote off AJ,akkers or keagen for making stupid mistakes, aj head butted the crap out of fleck but we still love him, but still wasnt cool to let down his mates…….
willa thats true, but i think it not that he did it its why and when he did it thats the problem.
and AJ Ackkers are our own, Epi must become one of us first, its one hellava impresion he made
Willa – i agree to an extend..Dirty play to me is a sign of no respect …no respect to your coach, teammates and your fans…but the boys seem to have got the tempers quite under control THIS year and this far…
He’s temper let down ALL of the team, management, coaching staff and FANS!
I for one condemn AJ’s ‘heated” play and has said on many occasions he should not be captain and or playing if he cannot control himself. I was furious with Ackers for his card in the game against the Bulls last year, but again – its the current year I am refering to – and I believe the Sharks discipline records this year has contributed highly to us not losing a game so far. 😛
**touches head** Touch wood!! 😀 😉
poor bloke, moment of madness, but i think they’re going to fry him.
am afraid to say i think this is just the sort of player the sharks need in thrit loose-trio to give them some go-forward too. i was coming around to the daniel and botes dual-fetcher approach until this game showed daniel brushed aside by masoe and the sharks not getting the go-forward monetum needed for a backline to play off.
One thing to win the breakdown contest, which they did not do, but its quite another if not getting that go-forward.
By the way – can anyone tell me how Sykes played? ❓
am afraid to say i think this is just the sort of player the sharks need in thrit loose-trio to give them some go-forward too.
07.04.08 10:35:38 – cab
Just lose the “momemts of madness” him not being ON the field for most of the game, is not gonna do much now, is it? 😉
Yep…I was really starting to like him…and now this…
I’m not writing him off as a player…( I still like Zidane 😈 ) but I think this edition of the Super 14 is over for him… 🙁
Hey BS – how did Sykes play? Wanted to see if he was getting some momemtum from where he left off last year – but had loadshedding so could not watch! 🙁
Sykes did not convince me one bit… I certainly hope AJ’s ‘crash conditioning course’ is done!
IMO we are seriously weak at lock this season…
Muller is good… that’s it… AVDB gets manhandled by the likes of 19yr old waif Quade Cooper, Sykes is average and AJ seems to be already retired designing white 3 piece suits for the Umhlanga brigade!
Ice…all the forwards had decent games…we certainly held our own in the scrums…
Who’s Paddy?
Paddy is Epi, Taione is Power.
Well at least that WAS the case during the RWC.
Bryce…yep…we’re thin at lock and we can’t say we didn’t see that one coming.
Sykes is in his early 20’s so he deserves a chance…
Paddy Power?
still confused Dawn?
Only the Bad Boys who doesn’t have work to do?
Totally confused.
Hurricanes vs Sharks
Penalties conceded
Hurricanes: 6
Sharks: 10
Line-outs
Hurricanes: 16 (2 lost, 2 skew, 1 quick)
Sharks: 17 (1 lost, 1 skew, i quick, 1 free kick)
Scrums
Hurricanes: 9 (2 resets, 3 collapses, 1 lost, 1 penalty)
Sharks: 9 (1 reset, 1 wheel)
Free kicks conceded
Hurricanes: 3 (2 tackles, 1 scrum)
Sharks: 7 (5 tackles, 1 line-out, 1 scrum)
Drop-outs
Hurricanes: 6
Sharks: 3
Stoppages: 84
man with athletic finger make broad jump
Dawn…
“Tongan rugby player Epi Taione, playing at the 2007 Rugby World Cup, changed his name by deed poll to Paddy Power for the duration of the tournament in response to the bookmaker’s sponsorship of the Tongan team.”
Any idea why the video was removed from youtube?
Which video?
of the headbutt
PJLD – just searched for Epi Taione on YT and found it…so try again…
quite a few S14 video’s have been removed from Youtube lately.
Maybe Sanzar or one of the owners of the media rights have complained.
The Taione vid is stll there just watching it now.
Actually, watching it now on Youtube, it definitely deserved the card but I don’t think it was as ugly as Latham’s elbow on Brad’s face a couple of weeks back. No citing there?
Judicial findings deferred a day
Monday, 07 April 2008
The findings from today’s Sanzar rugby judicial hearings for Lions player Ross Geldenhuys and Sharks’ Epi Taione have been deferred until Tuesday.
Geldenhuys was cited for kneeing Highlanders prop Jamie Mackintosh in Friday night’s Super 14 match in Dunedin.
Taione faced an automatic judicial hearing after he was red-carded for using his head to strike a Hurricanes player in the 64th minute of their match in Wellington on Saturday.
Judicial officer Nick Davidson QC said as a result of extensive evidence and submissions at the hearings, the findings would be deferred until Tuesday. – NZPA
aaaaallrightey then
interesting
The other type of Sharks (the type with the wigs and batman cloaks) are winning on that for sure
Hey KSA.
I thought you’d appreciate this comment i found on Voldy:
#
rangerman
As PissAnt says, to avoid becoming a very bleak rangerman, give Dick a tap on his shoulder and tell him “play Steyn at 12…. and nothing else”
Your world will blossom, I guarantee you
Comment by Bod : April 7, 2008 @ 1:40 pm
What’s the strongest version of a “tap”?
Ollie 😉
Blackshark, I think it’s called a PK.
Which is what Dick Muir gave me when I told him who to play where. Well, the verbal equivalent, but it still hurt.
Klap?
😆 @ Rob…
P0£sKlap 😉
07.04.08 14:22:51 – robdylan
😯 😯 Rob – co
me now – where did you learn to spel?? 😉
Eish – where did I learn to spell??? 😳
🙂
07.04.08 10:52:45 – bryce_in_oz
yes, i see it that way too brycie, but your frontrow is pretty special and with muller’s workrate and the muir/plumtree coaching is what is keeping the sharks ticking over. Perhaps Sykes deserves a chance still, big fellow, but needs to step up at no 4, but i’d still play AJ even if its for the first half only and he has half-an-eye on his colonel saunders suit collection.
poor old Epi, the oke just wanted to show his committment, looked alot worse on replay, but i suppose he’s in deep shit.
Hi everyone.
This is totally off any topic and I’m not sure where to post it.
Myself and Milissa (from the Sharks blog) came up with an idea and we wondered if maybe someone can make it a reality. The Lions has two calenders out this year. One with action photo’s from Lions games and One with their dancers.
Now we were wondering can’t the Sharks do something similar. Only we want a calender of shirtless smiling rugby playing Sharks and a calender for the guys with all the Shark girls. Maybe a % of sales can go to charity or maybe towards Cedric’s fund. There will definitely be a marked for the calenders. So maybe someone out there know who to talk to and drop the idea. I think the Lions ask around R250 for a calender and the more you order once off the better the price.
Hi
Just read Epi Taione has been banned for 6 weeks for his idiotic head but. Ross Geldenhuys cleared of his knee strike. How come only SA players sited?? I saw the Highlanders Prop take out a Lions player with the elbow during their game. John Smit was banned for a similar offence against France a few years ago.Once again I am disturbed with these hometown decisions. Epi deserves his punishment don’t get me wrong, however how come a blind eye was taken in other offences this past weekend.