MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Fijian Drua left their mark on their debut in Australia's National Rugby Championship over the weekend with hooker Samu Suguturaga slapped with a 20-week ban for biting Brisbane City captain Andrew Ready during a scrum.
Ready, a regular for Super Rugby side Queensland Reds, needed stitches in his ear after Brisbane's 45-36 win at Ballymore in the third-tier rugby competition.
Suguturaga pleaded guilty to the biting charge at a disciplinary hearing on Tuesday, where judicial officer Paul Tully found the conduct was at "the high end" for determining a sanction.
The ban was reduced from 24 weeks due to "mitigating circumstances", the NRC said in a statement on Wednesday.
"I'm lucky he was wearing a mouthguard otherwise he would have had the whole thing (ear)," Ready said in quotes published by Brisbane's Courier Mail newspaper.
"It's pretty disgusting and shouldn't be in the game."
Despite increasingly severe penalties, elite rugby continues to be marred on occasion by biting charges.
England winger Chris Ashton was banned for 13 weeks after biting Northampton prop Alex Waller during a Premiership Rugby match a year ago.
(Reporting by Ian Ransom; Editing by Nick Mulvenney)
