New Zealand-born flyhalf Willie Ripia, who joined the Force last year after previously playing Super Rugby for both the Highlanders and the Hurricanes, has had his playing contract terminated as the result of a “serious breach of team protocol”.
Ripia, who is understood to have a gambling problem, allegedly admitted to stealing money out of team mates’ bags after being caught doing so on change-room CCTV footage. The player will now apparently seek counselling for his problem, but given that he aims to play for Australia one day, one would think that he’s now taken an important step along that road, in the process joining Quade Cooper in the “burgling for Australia” club.
“The club wishes to stress that the matter relates to an internal incident at the club and does not involve any member of the public or public property,” said the Force statement, on a more serious note, clearly in an attempt to save Ripia from any potential criminal investigation. All jokes aside (bad taste though they be) we’d like to wish Willie all the best as he seeks help for what is clearly a very serious issue in his life.
Meanwhile, the Force appear to be without a Super Rugby quality flyhalf, given that they lost James O’Connor to the Rebels at the end of last season.
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Maybe he thought it was the RWC he was taking. It’s okay to steal that if you’re a Kiwi.
@KSA Shark © (Comment 1) :
😆 😈
@KSA Shark © (Comment 1) : 😆 😆 😈
It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad. You must be a very shitty gambler to need to steal money from your team mates. Pretty sure the Oz players coin it quite well?
How embarrassing 🙄
It is sad how often it happens (the gambling not the theft) these young guys are given bucket loads of money and no financial guidance whatsoever.
@PTAShark (Comment 4) : The more you earn the bigger the stakes you play for. There are guys in the NFL that earn millions and have gambled it all away.
@PTAShark (Comment 4) : Aussies also bet on anything that moves.
@KSA Shark © (Comment 1) :
Retard!!! 😈
No sympathy for the guy ..had there been no CCTV’s then what ..some poor bloke just had money stolen ..nope stealing from your team mates is pretty darn low ..
He’ll have to live with this now and rightly so.