THE SCOSMAN REPORTS ON HENSON CITING APPEAL

DAVID FERGUSON


GAVIN Henson could use the Border Reivers as his springboard back into the 2006 RBS Six Nations Championship after last night having three weeks cut from his suspension on appeal.

The Wales and British and Irish Lions centre will still miss the games with England and Scotland, but will be free to play in the Neath-Swansea Ospreys' Celtic League match at home to the Reivers on 17 February, the week before Wales resume their Six Nations campaign against Ireland.


The 23-year-old centre appeared before an independent appeal committee in Dublin after appealing against the ten-week ban handed down by an IRB disciplinary committee in Glasgow last month. Henson has been cited by the Scottish citing commissioner Bill Dunlop after breaking the nose of Alejandro Moreno by elbowing the prop in the Ospreys' bad-tempered Heineken Cup clash with Leicester on 18 December.

That suspension ruled him out of Wales' matches against England, Scotland and Ireland, and left him with only a few days to prove his fitness ahead of the final championship games with Italy and France.

However, the appeal committee, chaired by Brian McLoughlin (IRFU) and featuring former Scotland skipper Peter Brown and ex-Ireland and Lions prop Phil Orr, accepted Henson's change of plea to guilty and his contention that there were no aggravating factors, but various mitigating factors.

The ERC would comment no further, but the 'factors' were sufficient to bring the punishment down from the mid-point of the IRB tariff, three months, to seven weeks and two days, clearing him to play from 13 February, the day after Wales host Scotland.

It is known, however, that Henson's legal team pointed to the nine-week ban issued to France captain Fabien Pelous, after he elbowed Brendan Cannon, the Australian hooker, and the six-week punishment handed to John Smit, the Springbok skipper, for striking France's Jerone Thion.

They also insisted that Henson was acting in self-defence and that Moreno had been provocative in charging at the Ospreys' centre.

Henson refused to comment after the hearing, but the Ospreys issued a brief statement saying: "It is still disappointing, but at least there has been a reduction. We felt justified in appealing the initial ban.

"There could have been more sympathy for Gavin, but we have accepted the panel's decision."


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This article was posted on 11-Jan-2006, 08:25 by Hugh Barrow.