Rugby Union bans Mark Cueto for eye area contact
Sale Sharks winger, Mark Cueto, has been handed a nine week ban by Rugby Football Union (RFU) for “making contact with the eye area” of Northampton Saint’s Christian Day.
However, Christian Day has cleared Cueto from the alleged charges of the “gouging”.
The incident took place during the encounter between the Sale Sharks and Northampton Saints when former teammates, Mark Cueto, and, Christian Day, were fighting for the ball and Cueto placed his hand on Day’s face.
Later photographs revealed Cueto might have attempted to dig into Christian Day’s eye.
Earlier today, the Northampton lock, Christian Day, confirmed in a written statement that he was not 'gouged’. Day has submitted the statement to RFU’s disciplinary panel. His statement contained he had not been 'gouged'.
Besides the RFU nine week ban, the Sale Sharks, have banned Cueto for six weeks and that ruled him out of the rest of the season.
RFU has released both statements that Day has made, in which he admitted that they both wrestled their way to the ground and felt a hand pushed at the face.
However, he denied that Cueto’s hand for any moment in time was in contact with his (Day’s) eye, or, eye area. Replying to the question of the still photographs of the incident, in which Cueto’s hand was digging into Day’s eye,
he said, “I understand that the photographic evidence appears damning, but that was not my recollection of the event. I can only describe what I felt at the time of a split-second occurrence”.
RFU’s disciplinary panel headed by Antony Davies has also received different support letters, written testimonials, and, references for Cueto from different sources.
The most notable of these are 1) England manager, Martin Johnson, 2) RFU rugby operations director, Rob Andrew, 3) Sale Sharks owner, Brian Kennedy, and 4) Altrincham Kersal, which was Cueto's first club.
RFU’s panel did agree that the Sale Sharks winger’s offence was "not committed intentionally or deliberately", but didn't lift the ban. The panel has made their decision on the basis of Mark Cueto’s decision to not argue the
incident during his hearing.
The panel were of the opinion that Cueto’s action to not contest the offense depicts wrong doing from his end that he is “genuinely embarrassed and remorseful”.
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