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Billy Vunipola on the brink as Montpellier finally lose patience
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England back-rower Tom Curry banned after last Saturday's red card
By Liam Heagney
Back-rower Tom Curry must attend tackle school if he is to feature in another England pool game prior to his team’s likely progress to the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals on the weekend of October 14.
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The 25-year-old has received a three-game ban that can be reduced to two after the yellow card he received from referee Mathieu Raynal for his head-on-head collision with Argentina’s Juan Cruz Mallia last Saturday in Marseille was upgraded to a red card offence following a TMO bunker review of the footage.
Despite Curry’s third-minute exit, England went on to comfortably win their World Cup opener 27-10 at Stade Velodrome.
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It was the next day when it was confirmed that the forward would appear before a virtual disciplinary hearing judicial committee on Tuesday chaired by Adam Casselden (Australia) and including former players John Langford (Australia) and Jamie Corsi (Wales).
That hearing has now ended and a statement read: “England’s Tom Curry attended an independent disciplinary committee hearing for an offence contrary to law 9.13 (dangerous tackle) as a result of a review by the foul play review official on September 9.
“The player accepted the red card and was suspended for two matches (subject to completion of the coaching intervention programme). The player accepted that foul play occurred and that the offence warranted a red card.
“The committee noted that the offence carries a mandatory minimum mid-range sanction (six matches).
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“Having considered the mitigating factors, including admission of foul play and correctness of the red card at the first opportunity, an exemplary disciplinary record, apology to the player and good character, the committee reduced the sanction by the maximum mitigation of 50 per cent.
“The final sanction of three matches is to be applied as follows:
- England vs Japan, September 17;
- England vs Chile, September 23;
- England vs Samoa, October 7 (The player will be free to play in this match subject to successful completion of the coaching intervention programme.
“The player intends to apply to take part in the World Rugby coaching intervention programme to substitute the final match of the sanction for a coaching intervention aimed at modifying specific techniques and technical issues that contributed to the foul play subject to successful completion.”
The red card for Curry was England’s third sending-off in four matches for contact with an opposition player’s head. Owen Farrell was given a four-game ban for his August 12 Twickenham collision with Wales’ Taine Basham, while Billy Vunipola was suspended for three games for his August 19 Aviva Stadium collision with Ireland’s Andrew Porter.
That ban was reduced to two games after Vunipola successfully completed tackle school, freeing him for selection in this weekend’s game against Japan.
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