Oghre citing result will pique interest of England exile George

Wasps' Gabriel Oghre has seemingly had his hopes of involvement in the autumn internationals with England dashed following the receipt of a three-match ban after he was cited for a dangerous tackle in last Sunday's Gallagher Premiership win over Northampton in Coventry.   

Having been involved in the summer training squad, the uncapped 23-year-old hooker was one of eight uncapped players included in the 45-strong chosen for last month's mini-training camp in London. That was the gathering that Eddie Jones excluded the established Jamie George from, paving the way for Oghre to be included.

However, with the next England squad due to be announced on October 18 for the training camp in Jersey ahead of the November matches versus Tonga, Australia and South Africa, Oghre won't feature following a suspension that will rule him out of the upcoming Wasps matches versus Exeter, Saracens and Bath.

While George is finding his way back to form with Saracens, this three-match ban currently takes Oghre through to November 2, but it could be cut by a week if the player applies to World Rugby for a coaching intervention and satisfactorily completes the intervention.

Oghre was cited by Paul Hull following last Sunday's match after he was yellow-carded for foul play on Alex Mitchell and he accepted the charge when appearing on Tuesday night before a disciplinary panel comprising Gareth Graham (chair) with Olly Kohn and Leon Lloyd.

At the hearing, Oghre claimed he had no intention to make contact with the head of the Northampton player and that it was an unintended consequence of a poorly executed tackle, candidly accepting that he got his positioning and execution wrong. The written judgment stated: "By his plea, the player accepted that the referee’s decision on the field (which was to give the player a yellow card) was incorrect having regard to the implementation of the head contact process."

The judgment added: "This was a poorly executed, reckless tackle that made direct contact to the head. The panel had no hesitation in concluding that in all the circumstances of this case a mid-range entry point (six weeks) was appropriate. In the circumstances, the panel accepted that the player was entitled to the maximum deduction of 50 per cent by way of mitigation."