Australia's Henry Speight loses appeal to overturn ban
Tuesday 30 June 2015 15:25, UK
ACT Brumbies winger Henry Speight will miss Australia’s first two games of the Rugby Championship after his appeal against a five-week ban was dismissed.
Speight, who has two caps for the Wallabies, was banned last week until July 25 for a dangerous lifting tackle in the Super 15 on Western Stormers captain Juan de Jongh.
The 27-year-old missed the Brumbies’ 29-9 defeat to runaway Super 15 league leaders the Wellington Hurricanes on Saturday as they advanced to Saturday’s final against the Otago Highlanders.
Super Rugby organisers SANZAR upheld the ban during the appeal hearing late on Tuesday, dismissing the Brumbies' case that the tackle was wrongly classed as a lifting tackle and that the punishment was too severe.
"The committee dismissed the appeal on the basis that the appellant was unable to show that the judicial officer's central factual findings, that the tackle involved both a lifting and driving, were in error," SANZAR said in a statement.
"The committee also unanimously dismissed the appeal brought against the five-week (four-match) suspension imposed on Speight, finding that the judicial officer had not erred in principle and that the sanction imposed was not manifestly excessive."
Speight will miss Australia's Tests against South Africa and Argentina, but will have three Tests to force his way back into the Wallabies side in the lead-up to the World Cup.
The Fijian-born Speight will be available for a return to action when the Wallabies take on New Zealand in the Bledisloe Cup on August 8.
