{"id":948397,"date":"2026-11-01T05:32:14","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T05:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/948397\/"},"modified":"2026-11-01T05:32:14","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T05:32:14","slug":"ronaldo-mulitalo-learns-rugby-league-world-cup-fate-after-shoulder-charge-on-ronald-philitoga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/948397\/","title":{"rendered":"Ronaldo Mulitalo learns Rugby League World Cup fate after shoulder charge on Ronald Philitoga"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Zealand have been dealt a blow ahead of their do-or-die Rugby League World Cup<\/a> semi-final, with Ronaldo Mulitalo handed a one-game ban.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Kiwis\u2019 78-0 thumping of Fiji on Saturday on the Gold Coast came at a cost, with the star winger sent off for a shoulder charge on Ronald Philitoga in the 52nd minute.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It led to a melee between Fiji and New Zealand players, which culminated in halfback Brandon Wakeham punching Mulitalo in the head. The action earned the Fijian his marching orders as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n

On Sunday, the judiciary deemed Mulitalo\u2019s tackle careless and charged him with a grade-two offence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But much to his relief he was only given a one-game suspension if he takes an early plea, meaning the winger would be eligible to return for the grand final if New Zealand win their semi next Saturday in Newcastle.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Multialo\u2019s ban will hurt the Kiwis, because he has scored three tries and been typically busy under the high ball.<\/p>\n

New Zealand face a challenge to qualify for the final, playing either Samoa or Tonga.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wakeham also avoided a heavy ban, handed a one-game suspension, although that won\u2019t matter because Fiji have been eliminated from the global showpiece.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>Be the first to know: Add 7NEWS as your preferred news source on Google\"Google<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Zealand have been dealt a blow ahead of their do-or-die Rugby League World Cup semi-final, with Ronaldo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":948398,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,1625,158,760,139707,588,85,438546],"class_list":["post-948397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-lifestyle","tag-nrl","tag-rugby","tag-rugby-league-world-cup","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-your-feed"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948397","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=948397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/948398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=948397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=948397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=948397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}