Healy hit with extra week ban
commissioner Patrice Frantsch, and yesterday’s disciplinary committee, chaired in London by England’s Gareth Graham, deemed the foul play worthy of a red card.
Healy, who pleaded guilty to the offence by video conference, would have received only a two-week suspension and been cleared to face Ulster in the league at the RDS on January 6 but for his recent poor disciplinary record.
Two years ago this month, an EPCR hearing in Paris controversially banned him for a completely different offence to what had been cited after a December 2015 defeat at Toulon.
Arguing they had no opportunity to defend their player against this alternative charge, Leinster swiftly lodged an appeal that led to the suspension being overturned the following day.
It enabled Healy to feature in the return match in Dublin against Toulon, and then in a St Stephen’s Day clash with Munster.
However, a second hearing in London suspended the forward for two weeks for the originally cited offence of committing a reckless act of foul play with his knee, for
3 Cian Healy’s ban was increased from two weeks to three.
which he was yellow-carded.
Healy, who last September was removed from an internal South African flight while on Leinster duty after failing to comply with safety instructions, also missed last April’s European Cup semifinal defeat to Clermont at Lyon following a two-week ban for dangerous play at a ruck during a Pro12 win at Connacht.
Healy contested this citing but his offence, illegally clearing out Sean O’Brien, was deemed worthy of a red card at a hearing in Edinburgh.
Now he will be sidelined for three weeks following his latest run-in with rugby’s disciplinary authorities, a lay-off in stark contrast to the outcome of the other case he was involved in yesterday in London as Chiefs’ Mitch Lees had a citing complaint against him for striking Healy’s head at a later first-half ruck in Dublin last Saturday dismissed.
Meanwhile, Leicester declared that ‘sanity prevailed’ after Manu Tuilagi’s citing for a dangerous tackle was dismissed.
The England centre pleaded not guilty to making a high challenge on Chris Cloete in the 49th minute of their Champions Cup defeat to Munster at Welford Road last Sunday.
His former British and Irish Lions team-mate Brian O’Driscoll said the ‘game has gone soft’ in response to the citing and Leicester director of rugby Matt O’Connor was satisfied by a decision that clears Tuilagi to start against Saracens on Sunday.
‘We’re really thankful because Manu has just had a much publicised lay-off from the game and is back fit and had got through a quality 80 minutes,’ O’Connor told BBC Sport.
‘After his first game back it would have been devastating for him and the group if he was to miss more games, but thankfully sanity prevailed.
‘I was very surprised when the citing came though. There was no malicious intent, it wasn’t particularly high. It was a pretty sound tackle from our perspective.
‘Everything Manu does is scrutinised because he’s such a fantastic talent.
‘There will always be headlines around Manu and everyone understands that.’
The three-strong disciplinary panel found that while Tuilagi had committed ‘a reckless act of foul play in that his shoulder had made contact with Cloete’s head’, the offence did not warrant a red card.
CIAN HEALY’s excellent season as Ireland and Leinster’s first-choice loosehead has been dealt a massive festive blow after he was suspended from playing until January 8 by an an EPCR disciplinary hearing last night. Healy had been cited for charging into a first-half ruck in last Saturday’s Champions Cup win over Exeter at Aviva Stadium. The revitalised international had got the jump this term on long-time club and country rival Jack McGrath, who had suffered a loss of form following his Lions tour selection last summer. However, McGrath will now get a valuable chance in forthcoming Pro14 matches with Leinster to stake his claim again for the No1 provincial shirt ahead of the European match on the weekend of January 13 against Glasgow. It’s an opportunity that could also help him play his way back into the Ireland front row in time for the February 3 Six Nations opener in Paris. Healy’s unnecessary firsthalf forearm to the face of Luke Cowan-Dickie five days ago was punished at the time with a yellow card by referee Pascal Gauzere. However, he was cited in the aftermath of Leinster’s 23-17 comeback victory by match