Jamie George has criticised his Saracens teammate Totoa Auvaa’s “unacceptable” behaviour during the nightclub incident that led to the cricketers Ben Stokes and Gus Atkinson being dropped by England but insisted he was “a good kid”.
The England international and former captain described the 21-year-old Samoan back-row as “a rabbit in the headlights in London” and said the academy player “doesn’t know right from wrong”.
As revealed by the Guardian, Auvaa avoided formal sanctions over what took place at the Rex Rooms in Chelsea in the early hours of 8 June, with Saracens calling the events “regrettable for all parties involved” and saying they remained “supportive” of their player.
Auvaa threw a punch at Atkinson, which missed and struck an England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) security guard. The security guard required stitches but opted not to report the matter to the police.
“He’s a young kid who has only left Samoa once,” George was reported as saying by the Times and Telegraph. “He is immature. He is a rabbit in the headlights in London. He’s a good kid, but he’s got it wrong. There’s no disputing that. But we need to make sure that we establish that sort of behaviour is unacceptable.
“There’s also a bit of me that thinks we’ve got to look after him because he doesn’t know right from wrong at the minute. We’ll look after him. We will make sure that he’s got role models around him.”
In the wake of the incident, Stokes, the England captain, and Atkinson were stood down for the second Test against New Zealand pending the results of an disciplinary investigation into a breach of team protocols.
They were recalled for the current third Test after an investigation by the independent Cricket Regulator found “insufficient evidence” against the pair.
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A parallel investigation by the ECB also absolved Stokes and Atkinson of any wrongdoing, albeit they were issued with written conduct warnings for contravening “specific contractual obligations”.