Conway Suspended For One Week

Andrew Conway faced a disciplinary Hearing this evening via video conference and has been suspended for one week. A disciplinary panel convened in Edinburgh to consider the red card decision against the Munster winger resulting from the round 7 match against Connacht in Galway.

The red card was shown by referee Nigel Owens under law 10.4 (o) – late-charging the kicker: a player must not intentionally charge or obstruct an opponent who has just kicked the ball.

The incident occurred in the 61st minute when Conway was deemed to have committed an act of dangerous play against an opponent, Connacht out-half Jack Carty. The disciplinary panel, comprising of Roddy MacLeod (chair), Frank Hadden and Ian Douglas (all Scotland), concluded that the player’s actions merited a low-end range sanction point of two weeks.

The determining factor for the panel in making this decision was the presence of a second Munster player, captain Peter O’Mahony, in the incident. The position of O’Mahony influenced the positioning of Carty in the lead-up to the incident with Conway. Due to these circumstances, the panel came to a majority decision that the offence merited a low-end sanction point.

The panel also took into account that proceedings under law 10.4 (o) had not previously come before a disciplinary panel and therefore they had no precedents to reference. Once the low-end entry point had been established by the panel, full mitigation of 50% (one week) was applied due to Conway’s previous good record and his acceptance of a red card offence.

The 26-year-old winger/full-back is therefore suspended for one week and can return to play from next Monday, meaning the ban will not affect his involvement in Ireland’s GUINNESS Series which includes Tests against South Africa, Fiji and Argentina.