Rob Simmons: Still misses the Wales Test
Wallabies lock Rob Simmons' eight week suspension has been cut to five weeks on appeal but he'll still miss Saturday's season-ending Test against Wales in Cardiff.
An IRB appeal hearing in Bristol on Tuesday reduced the ban Simmons received for a lifting tackle on French player Yannick Nyanga in Australia's European tour-opening 33-6 defeat in Paris on November 10.
He has since missed the Tests against England and Italy over the past two weekends.
A statement issued by the Six Nations Committee, which deals with disciplinary matters on behalf of the IRB during the European autumn internationals, said the appeal committee had determined Simmons' offence merited a mid-range penalty rather than a top end one as the judicial officer originally found.
"After applying aggravating and mitigating factors, the appeal committee imposed a reduced sanction of five weeks," the statement added.
"Therefore the player will be free to play from February 4, 2013."
As was the case with the original ban, the reduced punishment takes account of the close season inactivity after the end of Australia's tour when Williams and his Wallaby team-mates are not scheduled to play.
Comments
LeftRightOut says...
@fattysock - the suspension takes into consideration the break over the end of the year (so it is more than 5-8 consecutive weeks) - he can now play from 4th Feb which means he can now play in the Super 15 warm up matches (and round 1?) that he would have missed with an 8 week ban
Posted 23:50 28th November 2012
paulynz says...
Rob Simmons' mum (georgesmith) will be pleased.
Posted 18:18 28th November 2012
fattysock says...
Can someone please explain what this actually means?
Given that there is no rugby going on in Aus at the moment... what does this change? He still misses the last test of the season and as far as I'm aware doesn't have any other match commitments until the S15 starts which are much more than 5 or 8 weeks away?
Posted 11:42 28th November 2012
APV1 says...
Probably the correct decision.
Shame it took an appeal to get it, eh?
Posted 10:44 28th November 2012
Scrumpoacher says...
Said it was harsh at the time and so it is. Bit of a waste time though from a playing point of view...
Posted 07:39 28th November 2012