Davies banned for seven weeks
Wales lock Bradley Davies was hit with a seven-week ban on Wednesday following his citing for a “tip tackle” in the Six Nations victory over Ireland last weekend.
Davies was sin-binned for the incident in the second-half of his team’s thrilling 23-21 victory in Dublin, but was widely considered to have been lucky to escape red after upending Ireland forward Peter O’Mahony.
The independent disciplinary committee, chaired by Antony Davies (England) along with John Doubleday (England) and Jean-Noel Couraud (France), having considered the citing report and the television footage and having listened to the player’s explanation, found that the incident, in which the player lifted his opponent beyond a horizontal position but did not bring him to the ground safely contrary to Law 10.4(j) and the IRB’s particular emphasis on this aspect of the game, merited a top end entry to the IRB’s table of sanctions.
Law 10.4 (j) states that lifting a player from the ground and dropping or driving that player into the ground whilst that player’s feet are still off the ground such that the player’s head and/or upper body come into contact with the ground is dangerous play.
The committee applied an additional two weeks to the entry point of ten weeks to reflect the need for a deterrent for this type of foul play but, in mitigation, took account of various factors in the player’s favour including his admission of guilt, his previous good disciplinary record and his conduct at the hearing in allowing the maximum possible reduction of five weeks.
Davies can resume playing on 26 March 2012, and has the right of appeal.
