David Howell’s plea against six-game ban turned down - Rugby League
On August 9, David Howell of the Harlequins failed in his appeal to lift the six-match ban which was imposed by the disciplinary committee of the Rugby Football League (RFL) after he was found guilty of biting Remy Marginet of the Catalan Dragons during
the concluding minutes of Saturday’s clash in Perpignan.
During the Super League encounter, the Catalans bagged a 48-22 victory over the Quins, leaving Quins to worry about immediate losses. One was apparent in the form of a major defeat and the other one was loss of Howell from the next six games. There are still
four games of the remaining season left. According to the ban imposed, Howell will also miss out on next year’s initial games.
He was not alone in the face of ban, after Saturday’s clash, but Oliver Wilkes of Quins was banned for one match as he was charged with performing a late tackle on Marginet, which is categorised as a grade B offence.
Prior to this ban imposed, Howell was also banned from one match as he was found guilty of performing a dangerous tackle. This match was his first in almost two months after he had recovered from his knee injury.
Howell’s offence is categorised as the Grade E offence calls for the suspension from four to eight games, depending on the type of assault. The Grade E offence also includes the acts such as spitting and gouging.
However, the category of the offences committed varied but both Howell and Wilkes are fined £300 for their assault.
There were a total of six players who were called in front of the RFL panel for the disciplanry action, which includes, James Roby of St. Helens, John Davies of Castleford Tigers, Micky Higham of Warrington Warriors and Liam Higgins of Wakefield Trinity
Wildcats.
Roby committed the Grade A offence, as he threw the ball at Kirk Dixon, whereas Davis was charged with a Grade B offence of a dangerous assault on Roby.
Resultantly, after being found guilty of foul playing Roby and Davies had to miss out on the semi-final showdown of the Carnegie Challenge Cup.
For the dangerous contact with Paul Sykes of Bradford Bulls, Higham was also found guilty along with Higgins who was accused of a high tackle on Jordan James of the Crusaders.
Amidst all the charges the heaviest one is that of Howell, as he had to oust himself out of the six games which mean that he is more of the remaining Super League season, with four more games for the Quins to wind up.
Not that alone he will also miss the initial spell of the next season, for which he filed a plea but that all invain.
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