Wed, Sep 14, 2011 page19

• RUGBY WORLD CUP: England’s Courtney Lawes banned for two games

  • AFP, AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND
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  England lock Courtney Lawes was banned for two World Cup games yesterday for kneeing Argentina’s Mario Ledesma, but escaped a stiffer sanction that could have ended his tournament.

  Lawes, who pleaded not guilty to the offense committed during England’s hard-fought win in Dunedin, will miss England’s next two Pool B matches against Georgia and Romania, but he will be available for the last game against Scotland.

  A disciplinary panel described the offense as “low-end,” declining to hand out a longer ban. Lawes, who receives the tournament’s first ban, has 48 hours to appeal the decision.

  “With respect to the sanction, the offense was deemed to be low-end,” an International Rugby Board (IRB) statement said. “However, taking into account mitigating factors being his excellent disciplinary record and remorse, and the absence of aggravating factors, the player was suspended for two weeks [games].”

  Video footage showed Lawes plowing into Ledesma knee-first after the hooker had already been tackled to the ground during England’s attritional 13-9 win on Saturday.

  He was found guilty of “recklessly striking an opponent with his knee” after the IRB’s judicial officer viewed the footage from all angles and heard other evidence from Lawes and his counsel, Richard Smith.

  England manager Martin Johnson, speaking at the squad’s Queenstown training base, told reporters: “Obviously it’s disappointing when you lose a player, but we do have cover there [at lock].”

  “It’s a fast-moving game. He dived in to make what he thought was a try-saving tackle and we thought any contact with the knees was incidental,” Johnson said. “They [the hearing] saw it differently.”

  Johnson added that it was too soon to say Lawes would appeal the verdict.

  “We only just heard the news coming off the training ground. We’ll need to speak fully to the guys who were in Auckland,” he said, referring to the disciplinary hearing. “We are going to need to play players over the next three weeks, but it’s disappointing to have lost him.”

  Lawes, 22, won his 11th cap against Argentina after missing this year’s Six Nations with a knee injury. Two weeks before last month’s final warm-up match against Wales, he was taken to hospital after a clash at a trial match.

  The grueling physical nature of Saturday’s contest was underlined when Argentina’s Gonzalo Tiesi was ruled out of the rest of the World Cup with a knee injury and captain Felipe Contepomi was left with badly bruised ribs.

  Lawes, speaking before the Argentina match, had emphasized the need to match the physicality of the Pumas.

  “I don’t mind a scuffle every now and then. I just do it because I can and it gets under their skin,” said Lawes, who can also play flanker. “They’re going to be big and they’re going to be physical, that’s what they pride themselves on, but physicality’s part of my game as well.”

  England continue their Pool B campaign against Georgia at Dunedin’s Otago Stadium on Sunday.
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