The mother of Origin rookie Payne Haas proudly donned a NSW scarf and said "go the Blues" as she arrived at the Southport Magistrates Court on Wednesday over an assault charge.
Uiatu “Joan” Taufua pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm after she physically restrained a delivery truck driver while two children attacked him in a Gold Coast McDonald's drive-through.
The mother-of-ten was granted immediate parole to attend to her family responsibilities, including caring for a quadriplegic son, an elderly friend and two other children she had taken in.
The court heard that Taufua became enraged when the driver, Keith Tyler, cut her off in the drive-through.
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She and the kids tracked him into a loading dock at The Pines shopping centre in Elanora, where security footage shows the trio confronting Mr Tyler.
Mr Tyler began to film the encounter as he received a barrage of verbal abuse before his device was hit from his hand.
Taufua held the man by his shoulders while he was punched and kneed in the head, causing him to "bleed profusely".
Mobile footage captured Taufua calling Mr Tyler a "f**king dickhead" and slapping him in the face.
Mr Tyler sustained a fractured cheekbone, a hole in his lip and a deviated nose in the attack and needed five weeks off work to recover.
The defence claimed that Tafua acted more "emotionally" to being cut off than most because one of her sons became a quadriplegic after a car accident.
“She reacted differently to how the average person might react,” said Taufua's lawyer Lisa Searing.
Referring to Broncos prop Haas, Taufua told reporters upon arriving at the courthouse: "This has nothing to do with my son."
Haas was suspended by Brisbane for the first four matches this season after he refused to co-operate with NRL Integrity Unit about a brawl involving his mother after a women's rugby league game last August.
Haas himself was not violent but was banned and fined $20,000 for his failure to uphold club standards by refusing to comply.
Taufua was sentenced to three years' probation for that incident.
Hulking forward Haas, 19, will make his NSW debut from the bench next Wednesday night at Suncorp Stadium.
