Francis gets eight-week ban

By Mark Stevens
15/3/2016
Exeter Chiefs and Wales prop Tomas Francis has been banned for eight weeks after being found guilty of ‘recklessly making contact with the eye or eye area of an opponent’ during last weekend's RBS Six Nations encounter with England at Twickenham.

Francis, who came on as a second half replacement, was cited following the match when video footage emerged of him apparently dragging his fingers across Dan Cole’s eye area at the bottom of a ruck.

At today's disciplinary hearing, the tight-head was found guilty of ‘recklessly making contact with the eye or eye area of an opponent’ which it was deemed should have resulted in a red card and banned for eight weeks.

A statement from the Six Nations disciplinary record: “Tomas Francis, the Wales replacement prop forward, appeared today before an independent Six Nations disciplinary committee in London, having been cited by an independent citing commissioner for allegedly making contact with the eye or eye area of an opponent in the RBS 6 Nations match between England and Wales at Twickenham on Saturday, 12 March 2016.

“The disciplinary committee, chaired by Pat Barriscale (Ireland) along with Jean-Philippe Lachaume (France) and George Spotswood (Ireland), having considered all of the evidence, including various clips of TV footage, and listened to representations by, and on behalf, of Mr Francis, found that he had recklessly made contact with the eye or eye area of an opponent, which had been worthy of a red card.

“The disciplinary committee heard submissions on sanction before concluding that the offending be characterised as being at the lower end of World Rugby’s scale of seriousness for this type of offending, which has an entry point of 12 weeks."

Francis, who will be free to play again on May 9, has the right of appeal.