Is he? He labelled the reaction to the arrest warrant as a storm in a tea cup as far as I could tell. I doubt he would publicly comment that assault charges are even tolerable. Let alone entirely forgiveable.
The fact that a new date was set and then the news outlets dropped it quicker than they picked it up, would back up his claim to me.
Let's recall that Lote T's ARU contract was totally torn up for a sexual indiscretion (with no illegality as far as was known) after a few other 'rules breaches' (again, as I recall, none of which involved any police matter).
Read the press articles carefully re Pulver's comments over this latest DI drama. All of Pulver's statements would indicate that he considers the whole matter quite minor, and even refers to the matter as one where 'we've found all DI will actually need to do is make a donation to charity' etc. The whole tone is one of dismissal and concern that the matter or neglecting a court date and risking arrest has been somehow blown out of proportion. This relating to a formal assault charge, followed an arrest warrant as no respect was given to the court attendance requirement. Pulver/ARU has made no mention of the ARU contemplating any punishment of DI over this whole matter. (Btw: If a high-profile sportsman is up on an arrest warrant, it's entirely normal that the media would grab this, and the UK media is still running with it, it has by no means 'been dropped' as you suggest, it's still up on many Aus online sports sections.)
Then we have the declaration that KB (Kurtley Beale) was or should be seen as 'a national treasure'. Excuse me? He's a highly paid pro sportsman who's been up on a public assault charge, and has assaulted his team mates and then broken agreements re booze he made with his employers. It's still far from clear what punishment if any the ARU (as distinct from the Rebels) handed out to KB (Kurtley Beale) over these incidents, other than supportive rehab time. KB (Kurtley Beale) was soon very fast-tracked back into the Wallabies, clearly.
All I am stating is that IMO a common sense everyday person looking at these statements would consider that the head of DI's and KB (Kurtley Beale)'s employer was far from condemning of the players involved over these incidents and was doing his best to construe them as not serious or having any grounds to, for example, formally punish the player involved, or do much more than be 'understanding'.
