{"id":949405,"date":"2026-11-02T02:50:15","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T02:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/949405\/"},"modified":"2026-11-02T02:50:15","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T02:50:15","slug":"samoa-captain-junior-paulo-learns-fate-for-rugby-league-world-cup-semi-final-against-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/949405\/","title":{"rendered":"Samoa captain Junior Paulo learns fate for Rugby League World Cup semi-final against Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Junior Paulo has been offered a warning with an early guilty plea for his <a class=\"css-1lg16vp-StyledTextLink ezegcyi0\" data-link-type=\"article-inline\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/7news.com.au\/sport\/rugby-league\/samoa-captain-junior-paulo-in-hot-water-after-ironing-out-dallin-watene-zelezniak-with-shoulder-charge-c-23100771\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">shoulder charge on Dallin Watene-Zelezniak.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">It means the Samoan captain is set to escape suspension ahead of his country\u2019s Rugby League World Cup semi-final against Australia after the judiciary charges from Sunday night\u2019s clash with Tonga were released on Monday morning. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Neither side had come close to scoring through the first 10 minutes and tensions flared when Paulo sought to lay down a marker with Tonga just 10m out from their own line at CommBank Stadium on Sunday. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-178igh4-StyledParagraph e1s06mna1\">Know the news with the 7NEWS app: <a class=\"css-h2mhmv-StyledContextualLink e1s06mna0\" href=\"https:\/\/7news.com.au\/app?utm_source=7NEWS&amp;utm_medium=contextual-link-app&amp;utm_campaign=7news-app\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">He charged off the line and smashed Watene-Zelezniak, sending Tongan players rushing to plead their case for a penalty before both sides came in for a push-and-shove.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Referee Adam Gee had already blown his whistle by the time Tonga\u2019s Haumole Olakau\u2019atu had rushed in and ended up in a grapple with Jazz Tevaga.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/d2dc240e99cbb6c19eb24386ee0f3effa82655ce.jpg\" alt=\"Junior Paulo was put on report after a shoulder charge on Dallin Watene-Zelezniak.\" class=\"css-16r7l45-StyledImage en5ut4d0\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>Junior Paulo was put on report after a shoulder charge on Dallin Watene-Zelezniak. Credit: 7Sport<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cThe shoulder is back! It is outlawed and boy oh boy it came from a blind spot for Watene-Zelezniak,\u201d Andrew Voss said in commentary on Channel 7.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Luke Keary described Paulo\u2019s hit as trying to \u201ciron out\u201d the winger.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cHe might be in trouble here. Big Junior, he\u2019s just collected him there. What a shot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"css-6fiqrm-StyledLinkWrapper e1y7kr221\" href=\"https:\/\/7news.com.au\/sport\/rugby-league\/ronald-volkman-emerges-as-unlikely-winner-from-chanel-harris-tavitas-luckless-rugby-league-world-cup-run-c-23101535\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>Unlikely winner emerges from Rugby League World Cup heartbreak<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-xp0jgm-StyledTimeToRead e1y7kr223\">2 min read<\/p>\n<p><\/a><a class=\"css-6fiqrm-StyledLinkWrapper e1y7kr221\" href=\"https:\/\/7news.com.au\/sport\/rugby-league\/late-heartbreak-as-sua-faalogos-big-toe-condemns-samoa-to-defeat-against-tonga-c-23100930\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>Late heartbreak as big toe decides Samoa-Tonga blockbuster<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-xp0jgm-StyledTimeToRead e1y7kr223\">4 min read<\/p>\n<p><\/a>Be the first to know: Add 7NEWS as your preferred news source on Google<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/1793587815_271_google-icon.84c242a8..png\" alt=\"Google News logo\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Junior Paulo has been offered a warning with an early guilty plea for his shoulder charge on Dallin&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":949406,"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-949405","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\/949405","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=949405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/949406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=949405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=949405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=949405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}