Twelve-week ban set to rule Quinlan out of Lions tour

IT was bad enough to taste defeat in the Heineken Cup semi-final, but his misdemeanour in that same game may have cost Alan Quinlan his place on the Lions tour to South Africa.

34-year-old Quinlan was handed down a 12-week suspension, by an independent ERC disciplinary

committee. Quinlan has 72 hours to appeal.

The offence, of making contact with the eye area of an opposing player, was at the low-range of the level of seriousness, the disciplinary panel declared.

Leicester and England flanker Tom Croft is said to be packed and ready to take the Munster and Ireland flanker’s place on the Lions bus if the suspension, for the foul on Leinster’s captain Leo Cullen, is upheld.

Quinlan’s suspension could, in effect, see him sidelined until September 10, more than eight weeks after the Lions tour ends.

Quinlan, capped 27 times for Ireland, was man of the match when Munster beat Toulouse in last season’s Heineken Cup final. His

Lions call-up was said to have been largely due to his no-nonsense playing style.

This was not the first time that Quinlan has been the focus of attention at disciplinary hearings, but it is certainly an incident which could cause his greatest career loss. Three years ago he was handed a six-week suspension after being cited for a stamp on a Cardiff Blues player. Quinlan has become the third player selected in the 37-man Lions squad to be ruled out. His Munster colleague, scrum-half Tomás O’Leary, broke his ankle three days after the party was announced and has subsequently been replaced by Scotland skipper Mike Blair.

Wales centre Tom Shanklin then suffered a

serious shoulder injury and faces four months out. Shanklin’s replacement has not yet been announced.

The gouging incident was heard before a three-man independent disciplinary panel, chaired by Welshman Roger Morris, in Dublin yesterday.

The incident was dramatically captured on television and has been debated and dissected in the Munster and Leinster camps ever since.