Hurricanes' Nonu cited after red card

All Black Ma’a Nonu will face a judicial hearing on Monday after being sent off during the Wellington Hurricanes’ season-opening loss to the Otago Highlanders in the revamped Super rugby competition.

Centre Nonu had 10 minutes in the sin bin in the first half of Friday’s match for an infringement at the breakdown and got a second yellow for a shoulder barge into the head of Highlanders scrumhalf Jimmy Cowan.

The red card left the Hurricanes with 14 men for the last 30 minutes as the Highlanders completed a scrappy 14-9 victory at Wellington’s Westpac stadium in the first game of the southern hemisphere’s provincial championship, now expanded to 15 teams.

“The red card and citing requires Nonu to appear at a judicial hearing which will be held at the New Zealand Rugby Union offices, in Wellington, on Monday 21 February,” the championship’s governing body Sanzar said in a statement on Saturday. - Reuters