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Mon 12 Feb 2018 | 10:38
Kyle Eastmond's shocking two red card attempts in as many minutes

10
Comments

Wasps got the better of Harlequins on Sunday afternoon with a 44-22 win in the Aviva Premiership, despite playing the majority of the game one man short. They were reduced to fourteen early in the first half, as Kyle Eastmond made two awful tackles.

Wasps moved up to third on the Premiership table as they ran in six tries, with Juan de Jongh, Willie Le Roux, Thomas Young (2), Tom Cruse, and Josh Bassett all scoring, while Danny Cipriani showed some lovely touches and slotted two penalties and four conversions.

BYE BYE DANNY

It was today confirmed that the Wasps number ten will leave the club when his contract expires at the end of the season. He has not announced his next career move, but is considering options.

"I will be sad to leave Wasps, but my job is far from finished and I can promise the fans my absolute all until the end of the season as we tackle the mission ahead of us. I will now take some time to decide my next move," said Cipriani.

This follows the recent news that New Zealand's Lima Sopoaga will join Wasps.

EASTMOND'S EARLY SHOWER

Centre Eastmond had a crazy few minutes, starting when Harlequins fullback Ross Chisholm ran at him just fifteen minutes into the game. Eastmond hit him high, and while it wasn't picked up at the time, it left Chisholm struggling on the floor, needing medical attention.

In the same passage of play, just over one minute later, Eastmond then made a similar high tackle on young flyhalf Marcus Smith, again making contact with the face and head.

Referee Wayne Barnes was then, quite bizarrely, presented with two separate tackles that both could have resulted in straight red cards. And they did, signalling an early exit for the Wasps centre.

Eastmond has been cited, facing a hearing for both charges in Coventry on Tuesday.

Despite the deficit, Wasps went on to score some lovely tries and move seven points behind league leaders Exeter Chiefs. View the incidents below, and match highlights below that.

DISCIPLINARY UPDATE: Eastmond has been suspended for 6 weeks.

The disciplinary panel said:

"The panel determined that each individual offence merited a mid-range entry point of six weeks. Thereafter the player was entitled to full 50% mitigation on account of his guilty plea, clear record and remorse for both incidents. This reduced the sanction on each charge to three weeks.

"The panel determined that these periods should run consecutively meaning a total ban of six weeks. We were satisfied that the running of the sanctions consecutively was proportionate to the level of overall offending to all of the circumstances".

 Match highlights (UK & select regions only)

Posted By: Grant Constable

10 Comments

  • the_osprey
    10:00 PM 16/02/2018

    I sometimes feel sorry for the big guys in these situations, but Eastmond looks tiny in comparison to most on the pitch, so he really shouldn't be swinging so high. No excuse really

  • misterdavid
    2:20 AM 15/02/2018

    I know this is pretty small-fry, but I can't help admiring the fact that Marcus Smith was focused on making a successful pass, even after being decapitated.

  • drg
    7:55 PM 13/02/2018

    'chortle'

  • drg
    5:29 PM 13/02/2018

    Well, he we've seen players cited for.things that were missed altogether...so I guess if you said he was cited for the first hit because it was 'missed', he could be punished for that, but then they could also deem that a red card is not a sufficient punishment for the second, so I guess he could be punished further, I'd imagine that these will run together rather than one after the other.. (which I think is a shame...)

  • filthypete
    9:39 AM 13/02/2018

    Ref report might be interested. I.e. he can presumably only be sent off for one offence. I.e. he's sent off for one and citesld for the second or opposite way around. So could be two separate incidents so double citing and one hearing? The rugby lawyers at hearing will have some field day

  • dancarter
    10:48 PM 12/02/2018

    The only person who knows if they were deliberate is Eastmond. It was a reckless tackle with poor technique but I don't think permanent bans for high tackles is realistic or fair.

  • eddie-g
    10:29 PM 12/02/2018

    I think to be fair to the match officials, from a lot of angles the first tackle didn't look bad. Even on video I needed a couple of looks to see how he caught him high.

    But the second tackle looked awful all the way, surprised it took as long as it did to send him on his way.

  • drg
    9:22 PM 12/02/2018

    He's a cock no doubt, but I can't see this being the sort of thing to lead to an indefinite ban in the future....

  • pdg
    7:36 PM 12/02/2018

    Two red card offences cos the TMO is too slow in informing Wayne Barnes about the first.....both DELIBERATE acts of violence designed to render opposition maximum harm...he should be banned for both incidents sepatately and given a minimum 6 game ban for the first offence, 12 games for the second, plus additional 10 games for repeating the offence so quickly and informed that any repeat of this type of deliberate crude excuse for a tackle will result in him being excluded from the game indefinitely

  • im1
    6:58 PM 12/02/2018

    How does this get dealt with in the citing? He is pretty close to 2 red card offences there. Double whatever ban he gets?

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