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RFU statement: Cited Maro Itoje 'free to play with immediate effect'

Maro Itoje in action for Saracens at Bath (Photo by Bob Bradford/CameraSport via Getty Images)

Fears that Maro Itoje could miss a massive chunk of the Gallagher Premiership title run-in with Saracens after his citing following last Friday’s head contact with Bath’s Alfie Barbeary have proven unfounded as he has been cleared to play with immediate effect.

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The 29-year-old was yellow-carded for his 29th-minute collision at The Rec, but he was subsequently cited and had to appear at a disciplinary hearing on Tuesday.

The decision from that meeting has now emerged and with the on-field decision of referee Luke Pearce upheld, Itoje will be available for his team’s remaining regular-season matches, the May 11 trip to Bristol followed by the May 18 home game versus Sale.

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Nemani Nadolo on his peak and once being considered “too big”

Former Fijian winger Nemani Nadolo chats to Liam Heagney about when he reached his peak and how he was actually at one stage considered too big to play rugby.

Video Spacer

Nemani Nadolo on his peak and once being considered “too big”

Former Fijian winger Nemani Nadolo chats to Liam Heagney about when he reached his peak and how he was actually at one stage considered too big to play rugby.

Defending champions Saracens are currently in second place but are not yet guaranteed qualification for the knockouts due to the congested nature of this season’s Premiership play-off race where just four points separate the Londoners from sixth-place Sale.

An RFU statement read: “Maro Itoje (Saracens) appeared before an independent disciplinary panel on Tuesday, April 30, chaired by Philip Evans KC sitting with Becky Essex and Martyn Wood.

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“Itoje was cited for dangerous tackling, contrary to World Rugby law 9.13, during a game against Bath on April 26.  The incident occurred in the 29th minute of the first half.  The citing was dismissed by the panel and Itoje is free to play with immediate effect.”

Panel chair Evans said: “The panel heard and considered evidence from Maro Itoje and the Bath player and were able to examine the footage of the incident many times and from many different angles.

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“In particular, the panel watched the footage from the rear view of Itoje which, when considered alongside the rest of the footage, demonstrated it was more likely than not that contact was not initially with the head or simultaneously with the head and the body.

“Instead, contact with the head appears to come later and can properly be described as more glancing than direct in nature.

“In all of the circumstances, the panel did not conclude that a high degree of danger was created and therefore the on-field decision stands. The player is free to play with immediate effect.”

Itoje had never been red-carded in his long career with Saracens, England, and the British and Irish Lions, and during last Friday’s game referee Pearce quickly decided that the tackle by the second row was only a yellow card offence.

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Speaking to his TMO, the referee was heard on live TV saying: “It is head-on-head contact. It is foul play because 4 is upright. It’s not a flush… It’s off his shoulder and then a bit of contact with his head so it’s high danger, mitigation, yellow… it’s not flush, that’s why it’s yellow.”

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J
JW 2 hours ago
Does South Africa have a future in European competition?

I rated Lowe well enough to be an AB. Remember we were picking the likes of George Bridge above such players so theres no disputing a lot of bad decisions have been made by those last two coaches. Does a team like the ABs need a finicky winger who you have to adapt and change a lot of your style with to get benefit from? No, not really. But he still would have been a basic improvement on players like even Savea at the tail of his career, Bridge, and could even have converted into the answer of replacing Beauden at the back. Instead we persisted with NMS, Naholo, Havili, Reece, all players we would have cared even less about losing and all because Rieko had Lowe's number 11 jersey nailed down.


He was of course only 23 when he decided to leave, it was back in the beggining of the period they had started retaining players (from 2018 onwards I think, they came out saying theyre going to be more aggressive at some point). So he might, all of them, only just missed out.


The main point that Ed made is that situations like Lowe's, Aki's, JGP's, aren't going to happen in future. That's a bit of a "NZ" only problem, because those players need to reach such a high standard to be chosen by the All Blacks, were as a country like Ireland wants them a lot earlier like that. This is basically the 'ready in 3 years' concept Ireland relied on, versus the '5 years and they've left' concept' were that player is now ready to be chosen by the All Blacks (given a contract to play Super, ala SBW, and hopefully Manu).


The 'mercenary' thing that will take longer to expire, and which I was referring to, is the grandparents rule. The new kids coming through now aren't going to have as many gp born overseas, so the amount of players that can leave with a prospect of International rugby offer are going to drop dramatically at some point. All these kiwi fellas playing for a PI, is going to stop sadly.


The new era problem that will replace those old concerns is now French and Japanese clubs (doing the same as NRL teams have done for decades by) picking kids out of school. The problem here is not so much a national identity one, than it is a farm system where 9 in 10 players are left with nothing. A stunted education and no support in a foreign country (well they'll get kicked out of those countries were they don't in Australia).


It's the same sort of situation were NZ would be the big guy, but there weren't many downsides with it. The only one I can think was brought up but a poster on this site, I can't recall who it was, but he seemed to know a lot of kids coming from the Islands weren't really given the capability to fly back home during school xms holidays etc. That is probably something that should be fixed by the union. Otherwise getting someone like Fakatava over here for his last year of school definitely results in NZ being able to pick the cherries off the top but it also allows that player to develop and be able to represent Tonga and under age and possibly even later in his career. Where as a kid being taken from NZ is arguably going to be worse off in every respect other than perhaps money. Not going to develop as a person, not going to develop as a player as much, so I have a lotof sympathy for NZs case that I don't include them in that group but I certainly see where you're coming from and it encourages other countries to think they can do the same while not realising they're making a much worse experience/situation.

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