From rugbyheaven .co.nz later...........
Dunning and Tuqiri face riot act
By GREG GROWDEN AND RUPERT GUINNESS - SMH | Saturday, 11 August 2007
Lote Tuqiri and Matt Dunning have put their World Cup positions in jeopardy with an early morning drinking session, the aftermath of which resulted in an alleged assault on a Brisbane taxi driver.
Tuqiri and Dunning were not involved in the pre-dawn attack outside the Sofitel, where the Wallabies were staying. They were questioned by Queensland police yesterday morning and later cleared over the incident that left the victim with a fractured skull after he was king hit.
The 52-year-old taxi driver hit his head on the ground and was taken by ambulance to Royal Brisbane Hospital, where his condition was stable last night.
But the Australian Rugby Union will still hold an inquiry into how the two Wallabies put themselves in a position of being implicated by their actions which came at the conclusion of a five-day Wallabies boot camp on Stradbroke Island.
Tuqiri and Dunning will be hauled into ARU chief executive John O'Neill's office early next week, where, say ARU sources, "they will be read the riot act".
The meeting is expected to involve an order that they have alcohol counselling.
Tuqiri and Dunning were at a Brisbane night club where they met Brisbane Broncos fullback Karmichael Hunt, who was with several friends and a Broncos teammate.
The group went back to Dunning's room at the team hotel about 4.30am.
It is understood the party finished about 5.15am and Hunt's entourage, including a person who had been with the Wallabies for numerous hours, headed downstairs to the reception in order to leave the hotel. The alleged assault on the taxi driver then occurred.
Police were last night planning to check surveillance tapes to determine the identity of the attacker or attackers.
Sources told the Herald last night that when police were alerted about the assault, they went to Dunning's room, where they woke the Wallabies prop. Tuqiri was due to take a 6.30am plane to Sydney but had to miss the flight.
Police did not interview Hunt, who has had no allegations made against him. But he is understood to have been in the hotel foyer when the attack happened.
"Andrew Gee, our football manager, spoke to Karmichael and he told us he had nothing to do with it at all," Brisbane chief executive Bruno Cullen said.
"As far as we're aware, Karmichael isn't considered a person of interest by the police or anything like that."
The Herald has also learnt that ARU top brass are furious that Tuqiri and Dunning have again been involved in an off-field issue that has disrupted the Wallabies' World Cup preparations.
"The matter will be taken out of the team code of conduct [laws] and dealt with," an ARU source said yesterday. "It is clear some [players] will still put themselves in situations like this when they shouldn't."
O'Neill said that while police had cleared the two players, the fact they were socialising in a player's room in the early hours with some people they were unfamiliar with was a concern.
"Players must be more conscious of not placing themselves in harm's way," O'Neill said. "While they may not have done anything wrong, they have clearly placed themselves in a position where their reputations, and that of the Wallabies, have been compromised.
"The fact is the Wallaby training camp had concluded and players were on their own time, the Brisbane-based players had even returned home. I plan on addressing the entire squad before it leaves for the World Cup in France and Wales on the importance of keeping themselves and the Wallaby name unblemished."
However, Wallabies coach John Connolly said there was no issue with the players' behaviour.
"These guys were in their own time, it's their private time, and they've been cleared of any incident," he said. "They've done nothing wrong ... obviously putting themselves in the position sometimes is dangerous but you can say that these guys didn't put themselves in that position."
Tuqiri and Dunning have been involved in a long list of incidents. But this issue could trigger the biggest blow to their careers if the ARU wields its power. The ramifications could be felt further within the Wallabies squad - including members of the team management - should the ARU's gathering of facts and investigation lead to a finding that the incident was also reflective of questionable organisation.
The ARU will want to act swiftly. It is not only conscious of the damage this incident will do to the code's image - and most probably the waning faith of its sponsors - but the Wallabies leave for France on August 23. "It must be as quick as we can," a high-ranking ARU official said. "But we have to get all the facts. And any judicial process must be fair."
It is understood the Wallabies camp officially ended at 10pm on Thursday after a team dinner.
However, it was not lost on angry ARU officials that the players in question were staying in hotel rooms that had been paid for by the national union and as a result were representatives of it.
When news of the assault broke yesterday morning, the ARU went into immediate damage control.
Wallabies team manager Phil Thomson was summoned by O'Neill to return from Brisbane to Sydney immediately to the ARU headquarters at StLeonards. He arrived back about 11am.
As Thomson was flying south, ARU chairman Peter McGrath was driving from Canberra to join him.
Meanwhile, as the Wallabies management still in Brisbane continued to assist the police with their investigation after a crime scene was marked outside the hotel, those players still there opted to remain in their rooms.
- with extra reporting by Brad Walter, Andrew Webster and AAP
These two will have to be reined in, John ...just as five of our six were!
A payback may help the balance sheet!
Cheers,
Baz
