Source: gorpitsen junior/YouTube
THOSE EXPECTING A citing against Toulon’s Jocelino Suta for the above choke hold on Leinster’s Richardt Strauss during Sunday’s Champions Cup semi-final are still waiting, although the timeframe in which citings are normally made has still not elapsed.
Matt O’Connor’s men scored three points from the penalty awarded by referee Wayne Barnes in this instance, though the punishment for Suta and Toulon could easily have been more.
When Toulon’s stand-in captain Chris Masoe asked for an explanation, Barnes repeated: “He’s grabbed him by the neck, he’s then wrestled him to the floor by the neck and he’s in a very dangerous position… don’t grab him by the neck, number 23.”
EPCR’s tournament rules state that the citing commissioner has up until 50 hours from the start of the match to submit a citing complaint, while the teams involved may refer incidents to the citing commissioner within 26 hours of the start of the match.
EPCR then refer any complaints to their ‘Gatekeeper’ to determine whether it should proceed, whereafter a disciplinary hearing takes place.