Blow for Ireland as Flannery handed six-week suspension

JERRY FLANNERY walked into yesterday’s RBS Six Nations disciplinary meeting in Dublin Airport, held up his hands and pleaded guilty to reckless behaviour during last Saturday’s Ireland-France game in Paris.

The 30-year-old Irish hooker went so far as to agree that his offence in launching a kick at French wing Alexis Palisson merited a red card rather than simply the reversal of a penalty decision that had been awarded to his side. His show of remorse for his actions also registered with the disciplinary committee chaired by Roger Morris of Wales. Morris and his tribunal colleagues Mike Hamlin and John Doubleday of England subsequently banned Flannery for six weeks which ends on March 29, by which time the Six Nations Championship will have concluded and he would be available for only one Magners League game before Munster’s Heineken Cup quarter-final clash with Northampton.

Although Flannery has the right to appeal, it would appear that his guilty plea has made such a course of action rather unlikely. The IRFU, however, issued a statement that they would “wait to review the written judgement before considering any further possible action.”