Devoto handed four-week ban

By Mark Stevens
5/3/20

Exeter Chiefs centre Ollie Devoto has been handed a four-week ban after appearing before an independent disciplinary panel on Wednesday 4 March 2020.

The England international was cited by independent citing commissioner Chris Catling following the match between Harlequins and Exeter Chiefs last Saturday for a dangerous dangerous tackle on Quins’ fly-half Marcus Smith in the 72nd minute of the match, contrary to World Rugby Law 9.13.

Devoto did not plead guilty, but was found guilty by the panel, which comprised of Philip Evans QC (chair), with Leon Lloyd and Chris Skaife.

He is now banned from March 3 to April 6.

Independent panel chair Philip Evans said: “The player accepted that he had made a high tackle with a swinging arm and that it made contact with the head of the opposition player. He did not accept it met the red card threshold.

“The panel applied the World Rugby decision-making framework for high tackles and considering all of the evidence available found that there was a high degree of danger to the Harlequins player as a consequence of the incident. There were insufficient mitigating factors to reduce the red card to yellow.

"He contested the charge, but other mitigation reduced the sanction from six weeks to four. He will be available to play on April 7, which includes four meaningful weeks of fixtures."