Johnny Fa'auli won't be returning to the Chiefs next year, having instead signed to play in Japan.

Well, that was some way to go out then, for Johnny Fa'auli.

Turns out the midfielder's red carded, high, no-arms hit on the Hurricanes' Wes Goosen in last Friday's final-round Super Rugby match in Hamilton, which earned him a six-week ban, was his final act in Chiefs colours.

Stuff understands the 22-year-old won't be back at the franchise next season, and is instead headed for Japanese club Toshiba, on a two-year contract.

Fa'auli was off contract at the end of this season and his deal was done before his ugly shot on Goosen, so there's no thought that that was a factor in him departing, but it does illustrate the liability he carries.

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After debuting for Counties Manukau in 2015, Auckland-born Fa'auli shifted to Taranaki the following season, and while he was certainly a threat at Mitre 10 Cup level, he found the step up to Super Rugby somewhat tougher, having gone on to play 17 games after getting a chance at the Chiefs last year.

BRUCE LIM/PHOTOSPORT Hurricanes centre Wes Goosen gets medical attention after the big hit by Fa'auli.

With Charlie Ngatai and Tim Nanai-Williams off to France after this campaign it could have opened up the chance of more game time, though the Chiefs' other midfield options still include Anton Lienert-Brown, Sean Wainui, Alex Nankivell, Sam McNicol, Levi Aumua and Regan Verney.

So instead of the popular idea of heading to Japan in the off-season and returning in time for Super Rugby, Fa'auli will stay through, at a Brave Lupus club who Chiefs team-mate Liam Messam played at recently, and where the captain is former Chief Richard Kahui.

Ironically, Fa'auli will miss the opening game of Toshiba's Top League season because it coincides with the last day of his six-week ban – August 31.

BRUCE LIM/PHOTOSPORT The last moment in Chiefs colours for Johnny Fa'auli was his red card for an ugly shot on the Hurricanes' Wes Goosen in Hamilton last Friday night.

The 1.78m, 100kg second five-eighth will be an intimidating force among a smaller playing group in that competition, but the wrecking-ball defender also has the propensity to either slip off a tackle or get it so badly wrong, that it lands him in hot water.

His latest indiscretion is no better example, with it one of the worst foul play incidents of the season, in a time where World Rugby has made a real point of clamping down on such play in a bid to protect player welfare.

Fa'auli had also last year copped a four-week ban for a high tackle against the Bulls, and even on return from that one he had admitted in an interview with Stuff that he had been trying to change his technique for the better.

FIONA GOODALL/GETTY IMAGES Having impressed at Mitre 10 Cup level with Taranaki, Johnny Fa'auli found the going a fair bit tougher in Super Rugby.

"My default's to go up high on the body," Fa'auli said at the time.

"It was always a habit to go up like chest height, but anything could slip up, it's easier to get penalised these days. So you've got to have it at the back of your head, that the consequences are pretty severe - and you don't want to again get a red card or compromise your team. So you've just got to focus on [from the] hips down I guess.

"It's easy to do it at training, because you're thinking about it. In the game it's quite a different thing, because there's heaps of things going on and you've got to listen and you've got to react to whatever picture comes."

AFLO SPORT After two seasons with the Chiefs, Johnny Fa'auli will link up with the Toshiba club where former Chief Richard Kahui is captain.

Then, after poleaxing Reds No 8 Caleb Timu this season in what would be a 'hit of the year' contender, Fa'auli said in another interview with Stuff that his menacing style of play came from his father.

"Being a Pacific Islander, he's a tough, short, stocky boy, he likes the physical stuff," he had said.

"He loves Brian Lima. And Ma'a Nonu and Tana Umaga. They're all physical players, so he tried to bring me up as a physical player.

"I used to tackle him when I was young, around nine or 10, I used to enjoy that."