Barbarians second-row, Will Skelton, appeared before an independent judicial committee via video link today having received a red card in the Barbarians’ match against England on 19 June, 2022. The red card was awarded for an offence pursuant to Law 9.13 (Dangerous tackle).
The independent Disciplinary Committee was chaired by Simon Thomas (Wales), joined by former international referee Donal Courtney (Ireland) and former Scotland head coach, Frank Hadden (Scotland).
The player accepted that he had committed both the act of foul play and accepted that the offence was worthy of a red card. On that basis, the committee applied World Rugby’s mandatory minimum mid-range entry point for foul play resulting in contact with the head. This resulted in a starting point of a six-week suspension.
The Committee took into consideration the mitigating factors and decided that the player was entitled to a reduction of one third of the sanction (two weeks). The Committee then considered the aggravating factors and in particular the player’s recent disciplinary record and increased the sanction by one third (two weeks) resulting in a sanction of six weeks (specific matches to be confirmed based on the player’s upcoming schedule).
The player may apply to take part in the Coaching Intervention Programme to substitute the final match of his sanction for a coaching intervention aimed at modifying specific techniques and technical issues that contributed to the foul play. Further information can be found here.
Click here to watch the video that explains how rugby’s disciplinary process works.
Visit World Rugby’s dedicated disciplinary process education and information page here.
World Rugby is managing the communications for all matches in the July test window. Please contact media@worldrugby.org for further information.