Nathan Hughes to miss Leinster vs Wasps due to ‘tweetgate’ but Brad Shields returns from injury
The No 8’s disciplinary hearing on Wednesday was postponed after he tweeted ‘What a joke’ during the process, with the England international risking further disciplinary action
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Brad Shields will make just his second appearance since joining Wasps after recovering from a broken cheekbone to take on a formidable Leinster side at the RDS Arena on Friday night, but there is no Nathan Hughes in the line-up after the England forward was suspended in bizarre circumstances for his part in ‘tweetgate’.
The No 8 faced an independent disciplinary panel on Wednesday night that last more than four hours, having been cited for punching or striking Gloucester's Lewis Ludlow contrary to Law 9.12 during last weekend’s defeat by the Cherry and Whites. The lengthy delay in the Rugby Football Union announcing the verdict of the hearing raised eyebrows, and confirmation that something wasn’t quite right came at 11:30pm when a statement said that the case had been suspended for a week due to “an issue that arose during the evening”.
That issue has since been revealed to be a tweet that was posted on Hughes’ Twitter page that read “What a joke”, which appeared at 8.37pm before being deleted.
The panel decided that “no judgment will be issued in this period” and that “the player remains suspended until the conclusion of the matter”, but the incident has not gone unnoticed and Hughes could well be facing a harsher punishment now that what he potentially risked for punching Ludlow. According to Law 9.12, Hughes risked a six-week ban for making contact with Ludlow’s head as it warranted a minimum mid-range entry point under the RFU’s disciplinary regulations, and such a ban would have ruled him out of England’s opening three autumn internationals against South Africa, New Zealand and Japan.
But the latest disciplinary issue could now see him miss all four internationals, adding in the final match against Australia, as well as Wasps’ opening Heineken Champions Cup pool games against Leinster and Bath.
The silver lining for Wasps director of rugby Dai Young is that the absence of one influential back-row forward is alleviated by the return of another, with Shields back in the fold after more than a month on the sidelines. The flanker, who won his first cap for England on the tour of South Africa in the summer after switching allegiance from New Zealand, suffered a fractured cheekbone in his first game for Wasps against Exeter last month.
The return of Shields and openside flanker Thomas Young allows the bulking Nizaam Carr to move to No 8 and fill the void left by Hughes, but Wasps suffered another blow this week in losing England scrum-half Dan Robson for three months as he requires surgery on the ankle injury he suffered last weekend.
Fly-half Lima Sopoaga and full-back Willie le Roux – who has been on Rugby Championship duty with South Africa for the last two months – join Shields in coming back into the line-up, but captain Joe Launchbury remains absent and there are fears that he could require surgery on the knee injury he suffered last month, which would rule him out of England’s autumn programme.
Dai Young has also been forced to move Elliot Daly to the wing with Christian Wade absent through illness, allowing Michael Le Bourgeois to join Juan de Jongh in the centre.
The loss of Hughes, Launchbury and Wade is far from ideal ahead of facing the reigning European champions on their own turf, and if Wasps were unaware of the magnitude of the task at hand, Leinster’s team selection will have brought grim reading.
Having been rested last weekend for the derby win over Munster, Johnny Sexton is back in the frame along with the entire front-row of Cian Healy, Sean Cronin and Tadhg Furlong, with nine changes made for the Friday night encounter. Back-rows Josh van der Flier and Jack Conan are also restored, with Dan Leavy moving to the blindside to leave Sean O’Brien among the replacements, while scrum-half Luke McGrath and wing Jordan Larmour return.
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