Premiership Rugby 23/24 Semi finals

[TRF_Olyy]

******* finally

Jonny Hill to face Disciplinary hearing over semi-final incident | Sale Sharks

Jonny Hill, Sale Sharks, is due to appear before an independent disciplinary panel this evening, Monday 4 November, for an alleged breach of RFU Rule 5.12 – conduct prejudicial to the interests of the game and/or Union – in circumstances where he is alleged to have physically abused a spectator...

www.salesharks.com

Surely the 10 games he's missed so far is going to be deemed enough?
It's mad he's not been allowed to play - if he does get found innocent (seems unlikely as him clattering the guy doesn't seem to be in dispute, just the reasons behind it) then how do they justify making him miss several months of rugby?
It's unlikely he would've been in the England squad, but that's another factor as well - missing so much of the season means he hasn't been able to fight for a spot so missed out on potential England pay on top of whatever performance/appearance bonuses he'll have missed in his Sale contract

 

[Which Tyler]

At a guess, I'd say that it depends on whether he was unavailable due to RFU dictat - or if Sale / JHill decided to make him unavailable whilst he's (potentially) stressed to the eyeballs, or an internal unavailability at Sale due to contract, rather than RFU disciplinary.
Of course, counter to that is the ridiculous extension of Kata's ban due to injury.
But I just don't know.

FTR: I fully understand the RFU not getting involved until the cops have finished - that seems like standard practice.
I don't see the cops banning him from playing.
I'm not sure where the RFU could justify banning him PENDING a disciplinary hearing (barring, I guess, an admission of guilt for a high-end offence with an inevitable long ban, in which case, time served should be taken into account at sentencing).
I could see a standard contract saying something along the lines of "stood down from playing if under investigation for criminal activity" - IIRC that's happened before with other players (Danny Cipriani and Billy Vunipola spring to mind, though I cannot remember the details).

 

[TRF_Olyy]

From Sanderson's press days it definitely sounds like we've been told not to play him - whether that's by our lawyers or PRL/RFU rules I don't know, but he was annoyed about it

 

[TRF_Olyy]

20 weeks, halved to 10 and 4 suspended, so he's free to play on December 7th

On the face of it I'd say 6 weeks is a decent result but it still feels very harsh considering he's had to sit out 10 games already because of the process

Looking forward to reading the PDF of proceedings - 10 weeks knocked off for provocation is quite a lot