Kyle Sinckler out of Six Nations opener after ban for foul-mouthed outburst
Kyle Sinckler has been ruled out of England’s opening Six Nations match against Scotland next month after he was banned for two weeks for swearing at a referee.
Sinckler was found guilty of “failing to respect the authority of the match official” during Bristol’s 20-7 win against Exeter last Saturday and with the next two rounds of the Champions Cup postponed – and the Premiership taking a two-week break – he will be suspended for the opening weekend of the Six Nations, assuming it goes ahead as planned.
On Wednesday the Six Nations organisers reaffirmed the championship will take place “as scheduled” but doubts remain after Roxana Maracineanu, the French sports minister,
said on Tuesday she requires additional guarantees before France are allowed to play in England and Ireland. The Six Nations did confirm the women’s competition has been postponed until “late spring or earlier summer”.
Sinckler’s ban officially applies to two Bristol matches – against Bath on 29 January and Sale on 5 February, the day before England face Scotland – based on the principle that Eddie Jones has not yet selected his Six Nations squad and there are no guarantees the 27-year-old forward would have been included. In effect, Sinckler’s likely international involvement was ignored by the panel.
All players selected by Jones will not be available for the round of Premiership matches in the last week of January, however, meaning Sinckler is only likely to miss one “meaningful match” he would have played – against Scotland – rather than the two his ban should dictate. So he is set to be available to face Italy on 13 February but his absence against Scotland is still a headache for Jones.
Against Exeter Sinckler said to the referee Karl Dickson: “Are you fucking serious?” after the official ruled there had been no foul play in a tackle by Luke Cowan-Dickie. Sinckler contested the charge but it was upheld and a lowend sanction of two weeks was applied.
Sinckler apologised on social media before his hearing but there was no mitigation given any reduction would have represented the maximum available and he was banned for seven weeks in 2017. “The panel found that his actions disrespected the authority of the referee,” read an RFU statement.
“It was in breach of a core value of rugby – respect of match officials – and warranted a red card.”
Meanwhile, the Six Nations expects to confirm future dates for the women’s competition – and the Under-20s which has also been postponed – by the end of the month. With England the only fully professional team in the competition, providing the necessary safety guarantees has proved insurmountable given some players have jobs, including as frontline workers. As revealed by the Guardian in April, Six Nations organisers had been exploring staging the women’s competition at a different time of year to the men’s to maximise exposure.
Exeter’s director of rugby, Rob Baxter, fully expects the Premiership’s circuit break to last for just two weeks but conceded there is a possibility that could change given pandemic’s continued effects in England.
Baxter had been in favour of moving Premiership fixtures forward to fill the void left by the postponed European matches but is now in favour of the break. On Wednesday PRL announced 18 positive Covid-19 tests across nine clubs – a reduction of one from the previous week.
“As far as I’m concerned we’re getting ready to play Worcester in three weeks’ time,” Baxter said. “If you want my opinion on whether there’s a chance of things changing, of course there is because we’re seeing things change day by day. But I’ve not heard that being discussed in any way by any official decision-making body.
“We’ve all sat and watched as new [government] regulations come out, as we’re concerned about what we’ll be allowed to do. The biggest thing we’re all hopeful for is that the vaccine rollout will continue at great pace and things will start to improve as the most vulnerable start to get protected.
“At the moment we’re seeing a bounce that’s very negative, the good thing is we’re hopeful that in a month, six weeks’ time, the bounce will be the other way and we’ll start to see some very positive movement.”