Red-carded Sale prop Schonert banned after head-on-head charge

Sale prop Nick Schonert has been banned for three matches following his first-half red card last Saturday versus Bath in the Gallagher Premiership. An RFU statement read: “The case of Sale player Nick Schonert was heard Tuesday, September 20, by an independent disciplinary panel chaired by Matthew O’Grady with Martyn Wood and Rob Vickerman.

“Schonert received a red card for dangerous tackling, contrary to World Rugby Law 9.13, for making head-on-head contact with a high degree of danger during the match against Bath on September 17. He accepted the charge.

“He received a three-match ban and will miss the following games: September 20 vs Leicester Tigers, September 26 vs Newcastle Falcons and October 1 versus Exeter Chiefs. The full judgement will be available shortly.”

Schonert was sent off in the ninth minute of the 37-20 win at The Rec following a head-high challenge on Bath lock Dave Attwood. Sale then went down to 13 players for ten minutes of the final quarter when replacement prop Ross Harrison was sin-binned.

“We are in the business of looking after people’s heads at the moment,” accepted Sale boss Alex Sanderson post-game at the weekend. “I sat in a coaches’ conference three weeks ago talking about mitigating factors. I will look, and if there are mitigating factors, maybe we will get him off a ban.

“The togetherness and grit, they responded and they didn’t kick stones, which you can do after an event [the red card] like that. They managed it very well physically, played in the right areas and came alive in attack and showed the endeavour they have shown in the last couple of weeks.

“It is another performance worthy of all the work done in pre-season. That is what I am most happy about, that is what I am chuffed about.”