Ashton lands seven-week suspension for tip-tackle

Chris Ashton’s tentative England comeback has already stalled after he was given a seven-week ban for a tip-tackle made during Sale’s pre-season friendly against Castres last Friday.

Ashton was sent off for the incident involving Rory Kockott, who was also shown a red card, and an independent disciplinary hearing held at Twickenham yesterday found the winger guilty despite the charge being contested.

The suspension means the 31-year-old Ashton, pictured, will miss the first six games of Sale’s league season and England’s training camp in Bristol in late September, robbing him of precious opportunity to impress Eddie Jones and add to his 39 caps, the last of which was won in 2014.

Counting against Ashton at the hearing was the total of 23 weeks he missed in 2016 after being found guilty of biting and making contact with the eye area of an opponent, resulting in an extra week being added to the entry points sanction for the offence of six weeks.

Kockott has been banned for a week by the French judiciary, who found him culpable of “edginess”.

Meanwhile, England stand-off Danny Cipriani is free to play after the charge of conduct prejudicial to the interests of the game made by the Rugby Football Union (RFU) was upheld without any sanction being issued.

Cipriani contested the complaint at an independent hearing staged in Bristol on Wednesday night but the three-man panel decided his behaviour during an incident outside a Jersey nightclub last week justified the RFU’S intervention.

Cipriani was fined £2,000 and ordered to pay £250 in compensation after pleading guilty to charges of common assault and resisting arrest following the incident on Gloucester’s pre-season tour.

It was felt, however, that the total fines and compensation and ten hours community service imposed by the magistrates’ court and Gloucester were already sufficient punishment.