GLASGOW Warriors forward Brian Alainu’uese will miss three of his team’s most important games of the season after a disciplinary panel upheld his citing for dangerous charging into a ruck in the match against Treviso on Hogmanay.
The second row’s action was deemed to be at the lower end of the offence, which would mean a two-week ban for starters. But the fact he was sent off for a similar misdemeanour as recently as November, in the Warriors’ match against the Ospreys, led the panel to increase the sanction to three weeks.
Barring a successful appeal, Alainu’uese will now be ruled out of Saturday’s PRO12 match against Cardiff and the two Champions Cup matches on successive weekends - against Munster then Leicester. With several other locks injured, Glasgow are now expected to use Rob Harley as cover in the position, with Jonny Gray and Tim Swinson remaining the starting partnership.
A statement released by the PRO12 last night read:
“A Disciplinary Panel convened in Dublin, Ireland today to consider the Citing Complaint lodged against Brian Alainu'use [sic] of Glasgow Warriors under Law 10.4 (h) (dangerous charging into a ruck). The panel upheld the citing.
“While considering that the severity on this occasion that the offence merited a low-end entry point (two weeks), the panel took into account the player's previous record for similar offences over the last two months and determined that the appropriate sanction was a suspension of three weeks, the player will be free to be play after the January 22, 2017.
“The player was reminded of his right to appeal.”
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