Violence Bad, 'mkay?

Though you won't find this on the Texas Rugby Union site anywhere obvious (maybe it's buried somewhere non-obvious in that eyesore of a website), where, you know, people might like read it and stuff, TRU President Dave Jenkins recently sent a caution about violence to Texas clubs (this is the entirety of the message I received, not sure:

The TRU also wishes to make it clear to all member clubs that incidents of gratuitous violence, whether it be stamping on an opposing player's head or whether it be punching to the face of a defenseless player, will not be tolerated and the Disciplinary Committee will impose the maximum allowable punishment as outlined by USA Rugby.

Clubs that have multiple offenders in regard to these type of offenses will also be subject to disciplinary action. We expect club administrators and coaches to ensure that all of their players are aware of the consequences of such acts and they should educate the players as to what is robust play versus violent acts.

There were two acts of gratuitous violence on Jan 10th and as a result the TRU Disciplinary Committee after reviewing the referee's report on these red card incidents have decided to suspend the offenders from all rugby until June 16th 2007.

(No idea what the antecedent to the "also" is in the beginning, this was the whole of the message I received.)

The incidents appear to actually have occurred on February 3rd (January 10 was not a rugby day). A Fort Worth player and a HARC player in two different games, red-carded for punching and stamping.

The referee describes the Fort Worth incident:

At a well contested San Antonio breakdown 5m out from their own in-goal area, Mr. Valenzuela drove the San Antonio #7 back and onto the ground, no farther than 1m from my position (i.e. nearly at my feet). While Mr. Valenzuela was crouching down, stradding his opponent, who was both on his back and effectively defenseless, I instructed Mr. Valenzuela "Don`t touch him," as it appeared likely he would stike him. With no discernible initiating event of foul play evident, Mr. Valenzuela ignored this instruction and punched his opponent three times in rapid succession all on the same location, his opponent`s right eye.

And at HARC:

30 minutes into first half, 1 meter from the woodlands goal line a ruck situation formed. A woodlands player landed on the wrong side of the tackle / ruck, however the ball was not sealed. Mr. Vega possibly thinking the ball was sealed began stomping the woodlands player on the head. At least 5 stomps were direct hits to the victims head. No attempt to `heel` the player was observed. Mr. Goetz was than 2 meters away and blew the whistle hard and loud immediately. No fights ensued.

So, don't do that kind of crap. Not only won't you be playing rugby anytime soon, I'll try to get you kicked off this club.