All Blacks captain Sam Cane has been banned by a disciplinary committee for his dangerous Rugby World Cup final tackle on South African centre Jessie Kriel.
Cane became the first player to receive a red card in a Rugby World Cup final as his yellow card was upgraded to a red by the ‘Bunker’ review system.
The backrow’s tackle on Kriel was in violation of law 9.13 (dangerous tackling).
Appearing via a Zoom call, Cane attended his disciplinary hearing and accepted his guilty plea.
A statement from World Rugby read: “When applying World Rugby’s Head Contact Process, there was no mitigation available to bring the degree of danger below the red card threshold. On that basis, and in considering the sanction, the independent committee applied World Rugby’s mandatory minimum mid-range entry point for foul play, resulting in head contact (six matches). Taking all considerations into account, including the player’s exemplary disciplinary record, his early acknowledgement of foul play and his clear remorse, the independent Committee determined mitigation of three matches was appropriate.”
The independent Disciplinary Committee was chaired by Adam Casselden SC (Australia), joined by former international player Becky Essex (England) and former international referee Donal Courtney (Ireland).
The ban will now see Cane miss three matches for his new club, Suntory in their opening three Japan Rugby League One games against Toshiba, Panasonic and D-Rocks.
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