A rugby player must pay £750 to the former teammate whose cheekbone he broke in a alcohol-fuelled street attack.

Robert Noel Magil hit Carsten Ludeman as he threw two "completely unnecessary" punches by a taxi rank after the end of season dinner of the North Yorkshire club the victim plays for and Magil used to play for, York Crown Court heard.

Peter Sabiston, prosecuting, said it was the second meeting between the two men that evening. Earlier they had been involved in a scuffle when Mr Ludeman had intervened to break up an altercation between Magil and one of his friends in a night club.

Magil, 24, of High Skillgate, Ripon, pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm and was given a community order with 12 months' supervision, go on a stop binge drinking programme and do 180 hours' unpaid work.

He must also pay £750 compensation. He has previous convictions for violence and dishonesty.

The Recorder of York, Judge Stephen Ashurst, said to him about the taxi rank incident: "There was no need at all to use violence on him. What you did was deliver one completely unnecessary blow and you tried to follow it up with another one."

Magil's barrister Sophie Drake said he now plays for a Leeds rugby club and though both men had encountered each other through rugby since the incident on May 2, there had been no problems.

"Out of frustration and drunk, he assaulted the complainant when he shouldn't have done," she said.

Mr Sabiston said both men used to play for Ripon Rugby Club and Mr Ludeman still does. He had gone out with friends on the night of the club's end of season dinner and after midnight, they had been at the Matrix Club in Kirkgate, Ripon. After the incident involving Magil, he had left the club immediately "expecting and wanting no further trouble" but then he encountered Magil again as he was getting a taxi.

Magil broke his cheekbone with the punch that landed.

Miss Drake said Magil was generally a hard-working family man.