Leicester contract rebel Noel Reid suspended after red card on Agen debut

Leicester contract rebel Noel Reid has been banned for three games following a red card on his Top 14 debut for Agen earlier this month. The Dubliner, who had only joined Tigers in summer 2019, was one of five players who refused to accept a permanent 25 per cent pay cut at Welford Road.

Reid left Leicester in July along with Manu Tuilagi (Leicester), Telusa Veainu (Stade Francais), Greg Bateman (Dragons) and Kyle Eastmond (unattached), and he quickly secured a two-year deal at Agen whose recruitment for the 2020/21 Top 14 also included Harlequins' Gabriel Ibitoye. 

A starter in the September 11 defeat at Pau, Reid's debut ended prematurely for Agen when he was red-carded in the closing ten minutes. 

The disciplinary hearing statement read: "Noel Reid was found responsible for dangerous play, more particularly for charging or dropping an opponent carrying the ball without attempting to grab this player. The average degree of the gravity scale was retained, that is to say a suspension of six weeks.

"In the absence of aggravating factors, and after taking into account the mitigating circumstances (expression of remorse, acknowledgement of guilt and clean disciplinary record), the sanction was reduced by three weeks. Given the schedule of matches to be played by Agen, Reid is free to play again on Monday, October 19."

Reid's suspension was announced at the same time as decisions for three other red card cases. Bordeaux's Seta Tamanivalu was banned for three matches for his dangerous play versus Brive, Stade Francais' Paul Alo Emile was similarily sanctioned for his sending off at Castres as was Beziers' Jarrod Poi for his PRO D2 incident.