One foul act, three vertebrae fractures, ten weeks in the cooler.
The Six Nations independent citing commission has handed down a hefty ban to France lock Pascal Papé after his yellow-card-earning incident against Ireland last weekend.
Papé drove his knee into the back of Irish forward Jamie Heaslip as he was attempting to hold up France fullback Remi Lamerat. Wayne Barnes sent Papé to the sin bin after a video review of the foul play.
Heaslip last five minutes further before limping off. He is expected to miss the next four weeks of rugby after fracturing three transverse processes in his vertebrae.
This is a clip of the heinous knee-job that put Heaslip out of the England game and a big doubt for the remainder of the tournament.
A statement from the Six Nations reads: ‘The committee decided that the offence should be categorised at the top end of World Rugby’s scale of seriousness and set an entry point of a 15-week suspension. It noted further the absence of aggravating factors and the existence of certain mitigating factors, including the player’s admission of foul play and his expressions of remorse for what had occurred and the injury sustained by his opponent, in applying a five week (33%) reduction from the entry point.’
The pair have since made up over the medium of Twitter.
If Heaslip and Papé have moved on, we shall now do the same and never mention the incident again.
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