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Recent Owen Farrell ban taken into account in three-game sanction for Harlequins' Elia Elia
By Online Editors
Harlequins hooker Elia Elia has received a three-match ban for being sent off for making a tip tackle on Dan Robson in Monday’s Gallagher Premiership defeat by Wasps.
Elia accepted the charge at an online independent disciplinary panel after being shown a red card for lifting Robson above the horizontal in the 53rd minute of the clash at Twickenham Stoop.
“While the offence was reckless rather than intentional, it was nevertheless clearly dangerous,” said the panel, who reduced the entry-point sanction by three games because of his good record.
"As the referee correctly noted, the fact that Wasps No9 had broken the fall with his arm did not mitigate the offence to bring it below the red card threshold.
"The player had one previous offence recorded against him, which was some time ago while he was 19. Given the factual position was similar to that found in the recent Owen Farrell decision, a 50 per cent discount from the entry point was also applied here.”
With just one round of the regular Premiership season left to play and Quins unable to reach the semi-finals, Elia is not free to play again until November 30.
His suspension covers Harlequins' last game of the 2019/20 season against Leicester this Sunday and the first two games of the 2020/21 season on the November 20 v Exeter Chiefs and the game versus Northampton on the weekend of November 27-29.
England captain Farrell had been banned for five games on September 9, a sanction that was 50 per cent less than the ten-game entry point for his red-carded tackle on Wasps' Charlie Atkinson while playing for Saracens in the Premiership.
That suspension ends on Monday as Saracens' final top-flight game against Bath on Sunday will be the fifth game he will have missed since his disciplinary hearing.
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Go to commentsI’m all for speeding up the game. But can we be certain that the slowness of the game contributed to fans walking out? I’m not so sure. Super rugby largely suffered from most fans only being able to, really, follow the games played in their own time zone. So at least a third of the fan base wasn’t engaged at any point in time. As a Saffer following SA teams in the URC - I now watch virtually every European game played on the weekend. In SR, I wouldn’t be bothered to follow the games being played on the other side of the world, at weird hours, if my team wasn’t playing. I now follow the whole tournament and not just the games in my time zone. Second, with New Zealand teams always winning. It’s like formula one. When one team dominates, people lose interest. After COVID, with SA leaving and Australia dipping in form, SR became an even greater one horse race. Thats why I think Japan’s league needs to get in the mix. The international flavor of those teams could make for a great spectacle. But surely if we believe that shaving seconds off lost time events in rugby is going to draw fans back, we should be shown some figures that supports this idea before we draw any major conclusions. Where are the stats that shows these changes have made that sort of impact? We’ve measured down to the average no. Of seconds per game. Where the measurement of the impact on the fanbase? Does a rugby “fan” who lost interest because of ball in play time suddenly have a revived interest because we’ve saved or brought back into play a matter of seconds or a few minutes each game? I doubt it. I don’t thinks it’s even a noticeable difference to be impactful. The 20 min red card idea. Agreed. Let’s give it a go. But I think it’s fairer that the player sent off is substituted and plays no further part in the game as a consequence.
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