PAUL WILLEMSE WILL miss France’s Six Nations games against Scotland and Italy following his sending-off against Ireland.
But the second row will be free to return for the final two rounds of the championship after he was handed a four-week ban by an independent disciplinary committee on Tuesday.
Willemse was involved in two separate flashpoints during the first half of France’s 38-17 defeat on opening night.
He was shown a yellow card after just seven minutes after his shoulder connected with Andrew Porter’s head while attempting to clear out the Irish prop. The incident was referred to the bunker for review but was not upgraded to a red card, allowing Willemse to return after 10 minutes in the sin bin.
Willemse was then shown a second yellow card, and sent off, for a high tackle on Caelan Doris later in the half — but on review, the bunker upgraded that incident to a straight red card.
The straight red card automatically triggered disciplinary sanctions, before the match citing commissioner subsequently decided that Willemse should also face sanctions for his tackle on Porter.
Both cases were heard via video link on Tuesday with the player accepting that his tackle on Doris constituted foul play worthy of a red card. He accepted that his tackle on Porter also constituted foul play, but denied that it was worthy of a red card.
He was handed a six-week entry point for the red card incident involving Doris, which was reduced to a four-week ban due to mitigating factors, and a four-week entry point for the citing involving Porter, which was mitigated down to a three-week ban.
A statement on Tuesday evening explained that “having reviewed a number of previous cases, and considered the facts of this case, the committee deemed that it would be disproportionate for the suspensions to run consecutively. Therefore the sanctions will run concurrently covering a period of four weeks (based on the longer sanction).”
The ban will rule Willemse out of Saturday’s trip to face Scotland in Murrayfield, and France’s home game against Italy on 25 February, as well as Montpellier’s Top 14 trip to Racing 92 during the Six Nations down week on 17 February.
Willemse is also provisionally suspended for Montpellier’s visit to Oyonnax on 2 March, but the final week of his suspension is likely to be waived pending his participating in World Rugby’s coaching intervention programme.
