Court rejects request for Gordon Langkilde to fly home

Samoa sevens international Gordon Langkilde must remain in the United States until his next hearing after a judge refused permission for him to fly home.

The 22-year-old, who pleaded not guilty last week, is awaiting trial on two counts of battery, one count of assault and one count of misdemeanor, following an off-field altercation with Welsh players at the last month's Sevens World Cup.

Langkilde appeared in court yesterday in San Francisco for a pre-hearing conference, alongside his lawyer Joshua Bentley.

Pacific Rugby Players CEO Aayden Clarke said the player must now return to court on 15 August (US time).

"What that means for us is we've now got a solid date that we can plan around, not only in terms of his case but also for the support for Gordon needed," he said.

"We made a request for him to be able to get back to Samoa and see his family but that's been denied by the courts and now we're just talking about how we're going to support Gordon on the ground, between ourselves and the Samoa Rugby Union, between now and the 15th."

Aayden Clarke said Samoa team manager Peter Poulos will remain with Gordon Langkilde in San Francisco until the next hearing.

"They're in good spirits, obviously trying to just bide their time and make sure that they're getting outside and seeing a few things because there's not much else they can do," he said.

"It's fantastic the SRU have got Peter on board there still with him and we're able to keep in touch regularly whenever we need."

"Gordon can't go too far away from where he is at the moment (because of requirements to check in with local police) and we've got a fantastic lawyer, Josh Bentley, on the ground there who is working hard so there's also those sorts of things for Gordon and Peter to work through," explained Clarke.