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.

Healy had pleaded guilty to the offence during a submission by video link and the three-person committee determined the act of foul play warranted a red card. The loosehead heard that the offence was at the low end of World Rugby’s sanctions with a two-week suspension as the appropriate entry point but the Committee then added an extra week “due to the player’s recent poor disciplinary record” and decided there were insufficient mitigating factors present to warrant any reduction of the sanction.

The three-week suspension means Healy is free to play on Monday, January 8 and will be available to Leinster for its concluding European pool games at home to Glasgow and at Montpellier. He has the right to appeal the decision.

Healy was involved indirectly in another independent disciplinary hearing in London yesterday, this time as the innocent party. In this instance, Exeter lock Mitch Lees had a citing complaint against him dismissed.

Lees had been cited by Frantschi for charging into a ruck and striking Healy’s head in the 40th minute but a different committee, chaired by Scotland’s Pamela Woodman, found that while the Chiefs forward had committed an act of foul play in that he charged into a ruck, they were not satisfied the offence had warranted a red card.

The citing complaint was therefore dismissed and Lees is free to play.

The Healy decision represented a double dose of fortune for Munster, for not only will the Ireland loosehead miss the derby at Thomond Park, but the southern province’s next Champions Cup opponents will be short a key attacking threat in Juan Imhoff.

Racing 92’s Imhoff last night received a five-week suspension following his red card in last weekend’s Pool 4 clash with French rivals Castres at Stade Yves du Manoir.

The Argentine wing was sent off by referee Wayne Barnes for striking Castres scrum-half Rory Kockott with the head to the head.

The committee, chaired by England’s Graham, upheld Barnes’s red card decision and deemed the offence was at the mid-range of World Rugby’s sanctions, deserving a 10-week ban. This was reduced in half to five weeks as the hearing took into account no aggravating factors, the player’s guilty plea and Imhoff’s good prior disciplinary record but it means Racing will be without one of its stars for both rounds five and six, at home to Munster in Paris and the trip to Welford to take on Leicester Tigers.

The Tigers received some good news yesterday when their centre Manu Tuilagi learned he would face no disciplinary action following his citing for a dangerous tackle on Munster’s Chris Cloete at Welford Road last Sunday.

The citing was dismissed, thereby allowing the England star to continue his comeback from a knee injury, from which he was marking his return to action in the Pool 4 defeat to Munster.