{"id":647695,"date":"2026-11-01T09:24:21","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T09:24:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/647695\/"},"modified":"2026-11-01T09:24:21","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T09:24:21","slug":"kiwi-mulitalo-learns-his-fate-for-shoulder-charge-against-fiji","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/647695\/","title":{"rendered":"Kiwi Mulitalo learns his fate for shoulder charge against Fiji"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

The Kiwis’ 78-0 thumping of Fiji<\/a> 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. <\/p>\n

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

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

\"Brandon<\/p>\n

Brandon Wakeham of Fiji reacts after the Ronaldo Mulitalo tackle. (Source: Getty)<\/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. <\/p>\n

Multialo’s 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<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Wakeham also avoided a heavy ban, handed a one-game suspension, although that won’t matter because Fiji have been eliminated from the global showpiece. <\/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":647696,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[807,111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-647695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-kiwis","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=647695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}