Civoniceva given all clear for Origin - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

Civoniceva given all clear for Origin

By Philip Henderson 26/06/2007 07:57:10 PM Comments (0)

Brisbane prop Petero Civoniceva has been given the green light to play for Queensland in State of Origin III after the NRL match review committee deemed he pushed, rather than struck, Wests Tigers forward Bryce Gibbs.

Civoniceva was sin-binned for his part in the 69th-minute brawl in the Broncos' 48-18 win over the Wests Tigers at Suncorp Stadium on Monday night.

There were fears he may draw a charge of striking or contrary conduct from the match review, putting him in doubt for the third Origin match in Brisbane on July 4.

But the NRL said there were no charges laid from the match, deeming Civoniceva's 10 minutes in the bin was punishment enough.

On the incident, the match review report read: "Possible striking by Civoniceva on Gibbs.

"Contact by Civoniceva deemed to be a pushing action with the right hand, not a striking/punching action.

"Civoniceva's actions causes escalation of incident with other players becoming involved in melee.

"Sin Binning deemed sufficient for Civoniceva's role in the escalation of incident."

All four players charged from the weekend round have pleaded guilty, with only Bulldogs prop Mark O'Meley and Sharks forward Cameron Ciraldo to miss games.

O'Meley will serve a one-match ban for his grade-two careless high tackle on Manly winger Michael Robertson.

He will miss the Dogs clash with Cronulla this weekend, but could still be named 18th man for the NSW Origin team early next week.

Ciraldo will miss two games after pleading guilty to a grade-four, careless high-tackle on South Sydney's Ben Rogers.

Rabbitohs centre Shannon Hegarty and Canberra's Glen Turner both escaped suspension after pleading guilty to grade-one, careless high-tackle charges.

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