IRELAND STAR Cian Healy will not be involved in Leinster’s RaboDirect PRO12 game against Treviso in Dublin tomorrow.
The prop was hit with a three-week ban this week for a stamp on England’s Dan Cole in the Lansdowne Rd defeat last weekend.
The independent disciplinary committee decided that the punishment for his stamp should be deferred by one week so that he would miss Ireland’s Six Nations matches against Scotland and France. That caused some confusion about the player’s eligibility or otherwise for this week’s action but disciplinary chiefs have moved to clarify the matter.
“During the hearing of the citing complaint against Mr Healy,” a statement from Six Nations Rugby Limited reads, “the chairman of the independent disciplinary committee, Roger Morris, of Wales, made it clear to Mr Healy and those representing him at the hearing that Mr Healy was suspended from the date on which he had been informed of the citing complaint against him (11 February 2013) until midnight on the night of Sunday, 10 March 2013.
“The disciplinary committee has not yet produced its written decision, but Mr Morris has today written to Six Nations Rugby Limited and those representing Mr Healy at the hearing to confirm the position. Mr Morris says, in relevant part:
‘I do not think anyone present at the hearing on Wednesday was in any doubt that Mr Healy is not free to play again until after midnight on 10 March’.
“Accordingly, Mr Healy is currently suspended and will remain suspended – subject to appeals – until 11 March, 2013. He is therefore not eligible to play for Leinster in this weekend’s RaboDirect PRO12 match against Benetton Treviso.
“In addition, following clause 2.5.99 of the Six Nations disciplinary and anti-doping rules (which is consistent with IRB Regulations 17.19.10 and 17.19.11), and in keeping with other decisions, the disciplinary committee excluded this weekend from its calculations of the three-week suspension as a result of evidence given at the hearing to the effect that Mr Healy would not have been selected to play for Leinster in this weekends match against Benetton Treviso.”
