Sunday 29 September 2019 13:55, UK
England centre Piers Francis has been cleared to continue playing in the Rugby World Cup after his citing for a dangerous tackle against USA was dismissed on the grounds it was not a red-card offence.
Francis caught Eagles full-back Will Hooley with a shoulder-led challenge to the head in the opening seconds of England's 45-7 victory at Kobe Misaki Stadium on September 26.
At the disciplinary hearing in Tokyo that took place, Francis admitted the tackle was dangerous but insisted it warranted a yellow card only and the committee agreed.
The Judicial Committee judgement said: "Having considered all the angles of the incident, together with evidence from the player and submissions from his legal counsel, the panel determined that the act ought to have resulted in a yellow card on-field.
"Since the threshold for upholding a citing is 'red card', the Committee did not uphold the citing and the player is free to play again immediately."
"The Committee weighed up the factors for and against mitigation and on the balance of probabilities, decided that the mitigating factors outweighed the factors against mitigation and so the appropriate on-field sanction was a yellow card.
"The citing was therefore not upheld."
Francis, 29, became the fifth player to be cited for a dangerous high tackle after just one week of action but is now available for England's remaining Pool C games against Argentina and France.
