Another weekend of rugby, and another red card for a dangerous tackle.
After Owen Farrell's sending off last week, this week's unsavoury challenge came in a New Zealand match between South Islanders Otago and Auckland.
Auckland fly-half replacement and former Edinburgh No.10 Simon Hickey was left sprawled on the pitch after Otago replacement Sio Tomkinson's nasty shoulder charge in the last minute, for which he was shown a straight red card on Saturday.
Centre Tomkinson had attempted a tackle in the final play of the game but instead ended up making contact with the head of former New Zealand Under-20 captain Hickey.
Not making any attempt to wrap his arms in the tackle, there was no choice but to give Tomkinson - who has 21 Super Rugby caps for Dunedin-based Highlanders - his marching orders.
The New Zealand Herald report that Hickey lay on the ground for a few moments before being able to get to his feet.
The tackle can be viewed in the below video, shortly after three minutes:
The incident, which happened in the domestic competition Mitre 10 Cup, had no effect on the result as it was in extra time, and Otago had suffered a heavy 38-6 defeat to an Auckland side filled with All Blacks in the opening round of the Mitre 10 Cup.
Hickey arrived at Edinburgh in the summer of 2018 with an impressive reputation, and was expected to become the team’s starting 10 but Jaco van der Walt rose to the challenge and became the first choice. Hickey returned to New Zealand this year.
