Michael Cheika has been banned from Leicester’s match against Newcastle this weekend after he was found guilty of disrespecting the independent match-day doctor following his first match in charge of the Tigers.
Cheika was handed a two-week suspension, one of which is suspended, after a Rugby Football Union disciplinary hearing that finished late on Tuesday night.
The Australian had been charged with conduct prejudicial to the interests of the game and while the disciplinary panel admitted it was “an unusual case”, it insisted the “decisions of the independent match-day doctor must be respected”.
The incident took place after Leicester’s narrow victory over Exeter at Sandy Park. During the match, the Tigers players Ollie Chessum and Solomone Kata collided when attempting to tackle Exeter’s Immanuel Feyi-Waboso.
Chessum was removed for a head injury assessment and was subject to “immediate player removal”. The England forward was then stood down for 12 days, in line with protocols, and missed Leicester’s defeat by Bath last Sunday.
Kata, meanwhile, was not removed for an HIA despite showing “obvious concussion symptoms”. Soon after he was shown a red card for a dangerous tackle on Jack Yeandle, raising questions as to whether he should have still been on the pitch. He was banned for four matches and the Bath defeat was not included as he was deemed unavailable due to his head injury.
Richard Whittam KC, chair of the independent disciplinary panel, said: “The panel found that Michael Cheika disrespected the independent match-day doctor in challenging the decision he had made that a player was subject to an IPR [Immediate Permanent Removal].
“Although it was an unusual case because there was a lack of clarity about the decisions made about the head injuries, the decisions of the independent matchday doctor must be respected. In this particular case, the appropriate sanction was one of two weeks. The panel mitigated this by suspending one week until the end of the season.”
