Bundee Aki has received an 8-week ban after a red card offence saw him leave the field in the 60th minute against the Stormers on Saturday in the United Rugby Championship.
The scores were tight until Aki’s sending-off, which saw the momentum swing swiftly in favour of the home South African side.
Aki’s Connacht were eventually beaten heavily, as the home side went on to pick up a commanding bonus point win over the travelling Irish side.
The 31-year-old centre is set to miss five Connacht matches as well as Ireland’s opening internationals in November with South Africa and Fiji in Dublin. Should Aki choose to complete a coaching intervention programme, then the ban will be reduced to seven weeks, making him elibigle for Ireland’s final game against Australia.
The original sending-off was due to a dangerous clear-out on winger Seabelo Senatla. The disciplinary committee has deemed these actions to have been reckless and contained a “high degree of danger”.
Bundee Aki banned for eight weeks for his clearout on Seabelo Senatla #URC pic.twitter.com/auifabK311
— Jared Wright (@jaredwright17) September 29, 2022
It was also cited following his dismissal that Aki had “not shown expected standards of conduct or respect” towards the officials in charge. Although it was stated that Aki had apologised to both referee Gianluca Gnecchi and Senatla following the incident.
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