Fergus McFadden Handed Ban For Dangerous High Tackle On Edinburgh Wing
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Fergus McFadden has been handed a three-week suspension for a dangerous tackle last weekend.
McFadden appeared in Cardiff before an independent PRO12 Rugby Disciplinary Committee on Wednesday, having been cited for a dangerous tackle in contravention of Law 10.4(e) in the PRO12 match between Leinster and Edinburgh at the RDS in Dublin last Friday.
McFadden denied committing an act of foul play. The Disciplinary Committee, chaired by Simon Thomas, alongside Owain James and Roger Morris (all from Wales), having viewed video footage of the incident, considered all of the other evidence and listened to representations from and on behalf of the player, found that McFadden had committed an act of foul play, by recklessly carrying out a high and dangerous tackle.
The Disciplinary Committee determined that the offending merited a lower-end entry point based on World Rugby’s scale of seriousness, which carries a two-week playing suspension. The Disciplinary Committee added a week to the entry point suspension (giving three weeks in total) on account of an aggravating factor, namely the need for a deterrence to combat a pattern of offending.
They determined that there were insufficient mitigating factors to warrant any reduction in the playing suspension, and McFadden was therefore suspended for three weeks.