The wheels of justice in Six Nations rugby turn at an irregular rate.

At the time of going to press last night, the outcome of Tuesday night’s disciplinary panel hearing to decide the sanction to be imposed on Scotland second-row Grant Gilchrist after his red-carding against France on Sunday was still a closely guarded secret.

Meanwhile, the verdict for French prop Mohamed Haouas – who was red-carded in the same game for head-on-head contact with Scotland scrum-half Ben White – was announced just after 6pm yesterday.

He received a six-week ban which was reduced by three weeks once the committee took into account mitigating factors such as the player’s early acknowledgement that the incident warranted a red card, the lack of intent and premeditation, his clearly expressed remorse and the player’s willingness to take part in the Coaching Intervention Programme aimed at modifying specific techniques and technical issues that contributed to the foul play.

That means Haouas, who became the first player to be sent off twice in the Six Nations having also been given his matching orders for swinging a wild punch at Jamie Ritchie in 2020, will miss France’s final two Six Nations matches against England away a week on Saturday and Wales at home seven days later. He will also miss Montpellier’s Top 14 match against Perpignan on March 25.

If Gilchrist is slapped with a suspension which rules him out of the first or both of Scotland’s two remaining championship matches, his place in the engine room will likely be taken by Jonny Gray, who came off the bench to partner big brother, Richie, in the second row last Sunday.

The younger Gray sibling has had to get used to being a bench player during this Six Nations having prev-iously been a near-guaranteed starter for Scotland since his debut in November 2013.

The 28-year-old admitted it was a shock when he realised that he was coming on after just 10 minutes but praised the way the whole squad coped.

“It is something we prep about in case there is a red or yellow card because it’s not just about who goes where but how we adapt the way we are playing,” he said. “We have some very good problem solvers in the squad and that is why that defeat is so tough to take as there was a lot of positives out there.

“We left a lot of chances out there and not getting that losing bonus point in the end is very disappointing.

“We have Ireland next, the No.1 team in the world, so it will be a huge challenge, but the competition is still up for grabs so we know we need to win.”

Scott Cummings could also come into contention although he is short of match practice after playing just one match following four months out with a foot injury.