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Leicester's Dan Kelly pays price for late hit on Saracens' Davies
By Liam Heagney
England midfield newcomer Dan Kelly has been banned for three games following his appearance at a virtually held disciplinary hearing following an incident near the end of last Saturday's last-gasp win by Leicester over Saracens in the Gallagher Premiership.
Tigers were six points behind when Guy Porter was illegally bundled into touch by opposition scrum-half Aled Davies. Upon a check with the television match official, a penalty was awarded to the home side with the clock in the red, but this review didn't take into account the striking incident that happened afterwards with Kelly colliding into Davies.
From the resulting penalty lineout, referee Christophe Ridley awarded the penalty try that gave Leicester their dramatic 13-12 victory, but the late drama didn't end there as Kelly was cited by commissioner Duncan Bell.
Kelly accepted the charge for striking with the shoulder/arm contrary to World Rugby law 9.12 and was given a three-match suspension by the independent disciplinary panel comprising Mike Hamlin (chair) with Rob Vickerman and Martyn Wood.
An independent disciplinary panel statement read: "The player attended the hearing and accepted the conduct merited a red card. Having heard the player and considered the seriousness of the offence together with mitigation, the player was suspended for three weeks. The panel's findings will be set out in their written judgment."
That judgment has yet to be published but Leicester have announced their intention for Kelly to apply to take part in World Rugby’s head contact process coaching intervention programme aimed at modifying specific techniques and technical issues that contribute to the foul play.
If the application is successful and the programme is completed by Kelly, the final week of the sanction would be substituted by the coaching intervention and see Kelly available for selection after two rounds. As it stands, the 20-year-old who made his England debut in this year's summer series is set to miss the Leicester games against London Irish, Worcester and Sale.
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I guess the other option would be to start ALB, he's looked good in the 12 so far when he starts and sets up those outside him. But that would mean putting the vice captain on the bench, which is unlikely. Another option would be to drop Reiko to the bench and play Proctor, though he's gone home so that's not going to happen either.
Both of those players just offer more of the soft distribution skills good centres learn from playing their careers there. Unfortunately that's what's lacking with the current combo.
Go to commentsWhatever let's see if this load of waffle is still valid in 2 years time. ABs will rise we have a lot of new talent coming through. The NPC was the highest standard for years. The game is changing to suit the fast pace we like to play. We get to play the Springboks more, including the franchises, which will make us better! Overall I am optimistic. I will add having watched the England game multiple times we made most of the play. England are an awesome physical team, but you can expect the All Blacks to get better and better at executing the chances. It could easily have been 5 tries to one instead of 3 to 1.
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