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Bristol's Siale Piutau has appeal against three-match ban dismissed

(Photo by Bob Bradford/CameraSport via Getty Images)

Siale Piutau has been unsuccessful in his appeal against the three-game ban he was given for punching Worcester’s Andrew Kitchener during last Friday’s win by Premiership title-chasing Bristol at Sixways. Bristol were incensed that the red-carded Kitchener was given the same length ban as Piutau, whom Pat Lam insisted only reacted in self-defence after he was punched by the Warriors second row.

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Lam made an impassioned plea on live TV on Tuesday following Bristol’s win over Northampton, accusations dismissed the following night by Worcester boss Alan Solomons, also on TV. Now Piutau’s appeal has also been dismissed, an online independent disciplinary panel on Thursday evening deciding that the initial three-game verdict will stand.

Heard by a new online independent disciplinary panel comprising James Dingemans (chair) with Sam Hillas QC and Becky Essex, the outcome was that Piutau remains suspended and will only be free to play again on September 20.

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RugbyPass brings you The Bear Pit, the behind the scenes documentary on Pat Lam’s Bristol Bears

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RugbyPass brings you The Bear Pit, the behind the scenes documentary on Pat Lam’s Bristol Bears

A statement read: “Piutau appealed against his three-match suspension, which was imposed by an RFU disciplinary panel on September 8, for punching Worcester Warriors’ Andrew Kitchener contrary to World Rugby Law 9.12 on September 4.

“It was common ground before the disciplinary panel and appeal panel that Piutau had punched Kitchener and committed an act of foul play.

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“Piutau appealed on the basis that the sanction imposed on him by the disciplinary panel was excessive because he was acting in self-defence and because he had mitigation from his good standing at the club and in the community.

“Appendix two of RFU regulation 19 provides that any act of foul play which results in contact with the head shall result in at least a mid-range sanction. This gave a minimum mandatory sanction of six weeks.

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“The disciplinary panel had then applied the maximum mitigation of 50 per cent, resulting in the suspension for three matches. The appeal was therefore dismissed.”

The judgment from the original hearing is available here.

https://www.facebook.com/rugbypass/posts/4377461025660520

 

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f
fl 1 hour ago
‘Props are awesome…so why don’t they win prizes?’

“The reason most props don’t last the whole game is that they expend proportionally more effort than players outside the front row. Should they be penalised for that?”

No, they don’t last the whole game because they are less fit than players outside the front row. I’d be interested to know if you’d apply this logic to other positions; do PSDT and Itoje regularly last longer than other players in their positions because they put in less effort?

None of this is about “penalising” props, its about being realistic about their impact on a game.


“While scrums are a small part of the game in terms of time spent in them, they have disproportionate impact. Dominant scrums win games; feeble ones lose them.”

Strength at the breakdown wins games. Good kicking wins games. Good handling wins games. Strong defence wins games. Good lineouts win games. Ultimately, I think that of all these things, the scrum is probably the least important, because it demonstrably doesn’t correlate very well with winning games. I don’t think Rugbypass will allow me to link articles, but if you google “HG Rugby Crowning the Best Scrum in Club Rugby” you’ll get a pretty convincing analysis that ranks Toulouse and Bordeaux outside of the 10 best club sides in the scrum - and ranks Leinster outside of the top 30.


“Or there’s Joe Marler’s epic performance in the Bristol v Quins 2021 Premiership Semi-Final, in which he finally left the pitch 15 minutes into extra time having signed off with a try saving tackle.”

Yeah - that’s a good example actually, but it kind of disproves your point. Marler played 95 minutes, which is unheard of for a prop.


“Maybe we need a dedicated Hall of Fame with entry only for props, and voted for only by props.”

Well we have the World Rugby XV of the year. Its only been going for a few years, but in time it’ll be a pretty good record of who are perceived as best props - although the lack of interest most people have in scrums means that perception of who the best props are doesn’t always match reality (e.g. Tadgh Furlong was great in 2018 - but was he really the best tighthead in the world in 2021, 2022, & 2023?).

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