![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1793445263_724_394e1454b73fccc467d51dea453acb1e750a0c0225f697bde10e1f36a6c86e33.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nNew Zealand winger Ronaldo Mulitalo could be facing a tournament-ending ban for an ugly World Cup high shot that infuriated Brandon Wakeham \u2013 so much so that Fiji\u2019s halfback punched the Kiwi flyer in the head.<\/p>\n
Mulitalo and Wakeham were both sent off in the 52nd minute of a game won by a rampaging New Zealand side 78-0.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ronaldo Mulitalo is sent off.\u00a0NRL Imagery<\/p>\n
The Kiwis secured their spot in the semi-finals with the 13-tries-to-zero demolition of Fiji on the Gold Coast, in which Penrith and NSW outside back Casey McLean bagged four tries.<\/p>\n
In spite of the lopsided scoreline, the game at Cbus Super Stadium was packed with crunching hits, spot fires and all-in melees.<\/p>\n
Tempers exploded when Mulitalo, one of the game\u2019s serial antagonists, burst out of the New Zealand defensive line and hit Fijian winger Ronald Philitoga high.<\/p>\n
The Cronulla speedster hit Philitoga flush in the head with his shoulder.<\/p>\n
He then flopped on top of him.<\/p>\n
Wakeham, who witnessed the shoulder charge occur under his nose, took a huge swing and connected with the side of Mulitalo\u2019s neck.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey want a piece of him!\u201d roared Corey Parker on Seven as a host of Fiji\u2019s players hounded Mulitalo.<\/p>\n
Referee Grant Atkins responded by sending off both Mulitalo and Wakeham.<\/p>\n
Philitoga left the field for a head injury assessment and didn\u2019t return.<\/p>\n
Mulitalo is expected to be charged by the tournament\u2019s match review committee on Sunday morning, placing the fiery winger\u2019s involvement in New Zealand\u2019s finals campaign in major doubt.<\/p>\n
In another heated moment in the Gold Coast clash, Fijian forward Jordan Miller was sin-binned in the 78th minute for a headbutt.<\/p>\n
Fiji\u2019s captain Api Koroisau suffered a suspected broken jaw in the heavy loss when he clashed heads with New Zealand enforcer Joseph Tapine in the eighth minute.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Zealand winger Ronaldo Mulitalo could be facing a tournament-ending ban for an ugly World Cup high shot…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":947510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,85],"class_list":["post-947509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=947509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/947510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=947509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=947509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=947509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}