Suspended Cian Healy to miss festive derbies

Leinster will have to do without in-form Ireland prop Cian Healy for the Christmas and new year interprovincial derbies after he was suspended for three weeks last night.

Healy, who will have to sit out the Guinness PRO14 clashes at Munster on St Stephen’s Day, and the home games with Connacht and Ulster at the RDS on January 1 and 6 respectively, had been shown a yellow card by referee Pascal Gauzere for a shoulder charge into the head of Exeter’s Luke Cowan-Dickie during last Saturday’s Champions Cup pool game at the Aviva Stadium.

He was later cited by match citing commissioner Patrice Frantschi for the 17th-minute incident and an independent disciplinary committee chaired by England’s Gareth Graham upheld the Frenchman’s complaint at a hearing in London last night.