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Bath winger cops ban for 'contact with eye area' of Leinster flanker

Will Muir tackles /PA

Bath wing Will Muir has been banned for making contact with the eye area of Leinster’s Josh van der Flier during his side’s Heineken Champions Cup, Round 1 match at the Aviva Stadium.

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Leinster hammed Bath 45 – 20 in a one sided affair, with a late try for Stuart Hooper’s side putting a bit of gloss on the scoreboard for the struggling Bathonians. To add to their strife, Muir was picked up for allegedly ‘making contact with the area’ of van der Flier.

Muir was cited for incident that occured in the 14th minute of the match in contravention of Law 9.12. The complaint was made by the match Citing Commissioner, Jeff Mark of Wales.

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The charge come under Law 9.12 A player must not physically abuse anyone. Physical abuse includes contact with the eye. Under World Rugby’s Sanctions for Foul Play, Law 9.12, contact with the eye, carries the following sanction entry points – Low End: 6 weeks; Mid-range: 12 weeks; Top end: 18 to 208 weeks.

An independent Disciplinary Committee comprising Philippe Cavalieros (France), Chair, Val Toma (Romania) and Chris Watts (Wales), considered video imagery of the incident and heard submissions from Muir, who pleaded not guilty to the charge, from Muir’s legal representative, Sam Jones, from the Bath Rugby Chief Operating Officer, Alex Cohen, and from the EPCR Disciplinary Officer, Liam McTiernan.

The committee upheld the citing complaint, finding the Muir had made contact in a reckless manner with Van der Flier’s eye that warranted a red card. It was then determined that the offence was at the low end of World Rugby’s sanctions and six weeks was selected as the appropriate entry point.

The EPCR say: “Taking into account the player’s relative inexperience, the committee reduced the sanction by two weeks before imposing a four-week suspension.”

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“Muir is free to play on Monday, 10 January 2022 and both he and EPCR have the right to appeal the decision.”

He wasn’t the only player cited for contact with the eye area last weekend. Daniel Ramsay of Pau was also cited for a similar offence.

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Bull Shark 3 hours ago
Rassie Erasmus' Boks selection policy is becoming bizarre

To be fair, the only thing that drives engagement on this site is over the top critiques of Southern Hemisphere teams.


Or articles about people on podcasts criticizing southern hemisphere teams.


Articles regarding the Northern Hemisphere tend to be more positive than critical. I guess to also rile up kiwis and Saffers who seem to be the majority of followers in the comments section. There seems to be a whole department dedicated to Ireland’s world ranking news.


Despite being dialled into the Northern edition - I know sweet fokall about what’s going on in France.


And even less than fokall about what’s cutting in Japan - which has a fast growing, increasingly premium League competition emerging.


And let’s not talk about the pacific. Do they even play rugby Down there.


Oh and the Americas. I’ve read more articles about a young, stargazing Welshman’s foray into NFL than I have anything related to either the north and south continents of the Americas.


I will give credit that the women’s game is getting decent airtime. But for the rest and the above; it’s just pathetic coming from a World Rugby website.


Just consider the innovation emerging in Japan with the pedigree of coaches over there.


There’s so much good we could be reading.


Instead it’s unimaginative “critical for the sake of feigning controversial”. Which is lazy, because in order to pull that off all you need to be really good at is:


1. Being a doos;

2. Having an opinion.


No prior experience needed.


Which is not journalism. That’s like all or most of us in the comments section. People like Finn (who I believe is a RP contributor).


Anyway. Hopefully it will get better. The game is growing and the interest in the game is growing. Maybe it will attract more qualified journalists over time.

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