LEINSTER'S scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park will be allowed to play against Connacht in the second leg of the Heineken Champions Cup last-16 this Friday.
The New Zealander appeared before an independent disciplinary hearing yesterday for a reported dangerous tackle in the win over Connacht last week.
The Ireland international was given a yellow after his shoulder made contact with the head of fellow 9 Kieran Marmion.
Referee Karl Dickson reviewed the incident but opted against showing Gibson-Park a red card, instead deciding to sin-bin the player.
Dickson said there"was not a high degree of danger" at the time and the disciplinary hearing agreed with that stance.
"He's very lucky. There's no doubt." — Rugby on BT Sport (@btsportrugby) April 8, 2022
Do you agree with Karl Dickson's decision to show Jamison Gibson-Park a yellow card for this challenge?
Should the Leinster scrum-half have been sent off?#HeinekenChampionsCup pic.twitter.com/f4OebNmX6H
An EPCR statement read,
"The independent Disciplinary Committee comprising Philippe Cavalieros (France), chair, Yannick Jauzion (France) and Mitchell Read (England), considered video imagery of the incident and heard submissions from Gibson-Park, who did not accept that his act of foul play warranted a red card, from the player's legal representative, Derek Hegarty, from the Leinster Rugby Head of Rugby Operations, Guy Easterby, and from the EPCR Disciplinary Officer, Liam McTiernan.
"While the committee determined that Gibson-Park had committed an act of foul play, it found that his action involved a low degree of force which did not warrant a red card.
"The citing complaint was therefore dismissed and Gibson-Park is free to play,"
Connacht head coach Andy Friend felt that the yellow was the right call
"I thought it was yellow," he said.
"I think there's so much conjecture around these things at the moment. To me, there was one angle that made it look not good, there were two other angles where you thought there was not much more he could do.
"Now, he definitely hit shoulder in the face but I reckon we've got to be careful there's a game. I didn't think there was any intent.
"I didn't think there was any intent in Tom Daly's tackle a few weeks ago [against Leinster].
There were different circumstances. This one had a second defender in there so you can understand a player, Kieran, falling.
"I was OK with it, to be honest, but you just don't know at this stage whether it's going to be played on, yellow card, red card. I thought the right decision was made."
Leinster lead their provincial rivals 26-21 on aggregate and will face either Leicester Tigers or Clermont Auvergne if they progress in Friday's Aviva Stadium tie
Jamison Gibson-Park citing complaint dismissed pic.twitter.com/WLukVKYEBg — The 2nd Row (@the2ndRow) April 13, 2022
