England Grand Slam-winner George Kruis could miss the upcoming tour of Australia after he was cited for allegedly biting an opponent while playing for Premiership leaders Saracens against Bath last week.
The lock forward was to stand before a three-man Rugby Football Union (RFU) disciplinary panel in Bristol, England, yesterday as was Bath prop David Wilson, who was cited for allegedly making contact with one of Kruis’ eyes or his eye area.
Charges against the pair were brought following London club Saracens’ 30-10 win away to Bath on Friday last week.
Photo: Reuters
“David Wilson of Bath Rugby and George Kruis of Saracens will appear before an RFU disciplinary panel both charged with acts contrary to good sportsmanship contrary to law 10.4(m),” a statement issued by England’s governing body said on Monday.
“Wilson has been cited following the Aviva Premiership match between Bath and Saracens for allegedly making contact with the eye(s) or the eye area of Kruis,” it said. “Kruis was also cited for allegedly biting David Wilson as part of the same incident in the second half of the match.”
“Both players will appear before a three-person RFU disciplinary panel chaired by Christopher Quinlan QC tomorrow evening (Tuesday) in Bristol,” the RFU said.
Biting is regarded as a serious disciplinary offense and the lower-end punishment if proven is a 12-week ban, according to RFU regulations.
That would rule Kruis out of the remainder of Premiership champions Saracens’ domestic campaign and his hopes of securing a place in England’s squad for their three-Test tour of Australia in June.
Former England prop David Wilson also faces a 12-week ban if found guilty of the gouging charge against him.
The fall-out from Friday’s league fixture had already seen the RFU and Bath launch a joint investigation following a report that a supporter confronted referee Greg Garner in the officials’ dressing room at the Recreation Ground.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier