End of the road for Mike Brown
DISCIPLINARY UPDATE: The Harlequins career of Mike Brown is over after the England fullback failed in his appeal to get the six-match ban he was given for a stamp reduced.
Brown was sent off for standing on the head of Wasps hooker Tommy Taylor at Twickenham Stoop on May 9, resulting in a suspension that rules him out of the rest of Quins’ season.
An independent disciplinary panel on Wednesday dismissed his attempt to have the sanction reduced, meaning the Newcastle-bound 35-year-old, who has 72 England caps, has played his last game for the club he first represented in 2005.
An RFU statement read: “Harlequins’ Mike Brown attended an online disciplinary appeal hearing last night [Wednesday] in front of an independent disciplinary panel comprising Richard Whittam (chairman), with Daniel White and Julian Morris.
“Brown was appealing his six-match suspension, which was given for stamping or trampling contrary to World Rugby law 9.12.
“At the original disciplinary hearing on May 11, Brown accepted the charge against him and was given the suspension by an independent panel of Matthew Weaver (chairman), Rob Vickerman and Mitch Read. Full details can be found in the judgment here.
“An independent panel statement following last night’s hearing read: ‘The appeal was dismissed. The appeal panel did not accept the submissions that the disciplinary panel had come to a decision to which no reasonable body could have come, particularly bearing in mind that the burden is on the player to establish on the balance of probabilities that no reasonable disciplinary panel could have come to the same conclusion. The original sanction stands’.”
