Howells appeared before an independent Six Nations Disciplinary Committee, having been cited by the independent Citing Commissioner for an alleged dangerous tackle, contrary to Law 10.4(j).
Although Howells was yellow carded for the tackle at the time, the Committee, chaired by Pat Barriscale (Ireland), along with Marco Cordelli (Italy) and Dr Barry O’Driscoll (Ireland), having viewed video of the incident and listened to the player and his representatives, decided the tackle was correctly classified under Law 10.4 (j) and that it warranted a red card.
The Committee found that the tackle should be categorised at the low end of the IRB’s scale of offending (which carries an entry point of 4 weeks). They applied an additional one week to reflect the IRB’s requirement for a deterrent for this type of dangerous tackle but allowed the maximum two weeks of mitigation to reflect particularly the player’s remorse, his conduct at the hearing, and his previous clear disciplinary record.
Howells is now suspended until midnight on Sunday, March 16 2014 and has the right of appeal.
