Assault charge sees Lauaki on sideline

Sione Lauaki's hopes of returning to Super 14 rugby action for the Chiefs against the Crusaders tomorrow night ended abruptly yesterday when he was charged with assault.

The charge followed police investigations into an incident at the Coyote Street Bar and Restaurant about 2am last Friday.

The former All Black loose forward was not arrested following what was understood to be a minor incident but voluntarily accompanied police for questioning after they were called to the bar by the complainant.

Lauaki this week came off a two-match suspension for a spear tackle in a Super 14 match against the Lions in Johannesburg where he captained the Chiefs in the absence of regular skipper Mils Muliaina.

He has been training with the Chiefs with a view to playing in the key match against the Crusaders at Waikato Stadium but there was a delay in releasing the side yesterday afternoon following the news of the assault charge and he was eventually omitted from the match 22.

"It's been a big week for him and him and I have decided he's not in the right state, in the light of what's happened, to play on Friday," Chiefs head coach Ian Foster said.

Foster said the Chiefs would fully support Lauaki over the next few weeks but he refused to make any further comment.

In a written statement confirming the charge, the Chiefs said Lauaki would also be taking part in New Zealand Rugby Union and Chiefs disciplinary processes and neither they nor the player would be making any comment until after the matter had been through the courts.

Earlier Foster told Fairfax the Chiefs had managed to put aside the distraction of Lauaki's problems to concentrate on preparing to play the Crusaders.

"It's something that you never want to happen but it's a reality of life that things get chucked at you as a team and we've just got to learn how to deal with it.

"I think the team has dealt with it really well."

Lauaki, who sat out the second game of his suspension last Friday night in the Chiefs' dugout just hours after the alleged bar incident, is in his seventh season with the Chiefs and has played 66 matches for them. Earlier this year Lauaki told the Waikato Times he had matured and put behind him his troubled past, which included in 2006 getting diversion for assaulting an off-duty Hamilton security officer and later that year hitting a rival player following an argument outside an Auckland bar.

Lauaki is due to appear in the Hamilton District Court on March 23 over the latest charge.

- © Fairfax NZ News