Grewcock free for Grand Slam decider after headguard fine
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Your support makes all the difference.Danny Grewcock, the England and Lions Test lock, is available to play for his country in this weekend's Grand Slam finale against Ireland at Lansdowne Road, despite being found guilty of one of the more unusual offences in rugby's list of misdemeanours at a disciplinary hearing last night. The Bath captain was fined £500 and ordered to pay £125 costs for ripping up a headguard belonging to Mark Connors, the former Wallaby forward now playing for Northampton, in a Premiership match earlier this month.
"We felt as a union that we had to mark our abhorrence of this unsportsmanlike act in some way, and felt a fine was appropriate," said Commodore Jeff Blackett, who chaired the tribunal at a Gatwick Airport hotel.
"Danny was mildly concussed during the game – in his evidence, he told us that he remembered nothing of the contest – and that concerned us for obvious reasons. However, we felt the referee dealt with the incident correctly."
Bath, struggling against relegation, were fearful of losing their captain and most influential forward for a series of important games in both the Premiership and the Parker Pen Challenge Cup, a European tournament in which they have qualified for the semi-finals. Grewcock was equally concerned at the prospect of missing Sunday's do-or-die match in Dublin, for which he has been named among the replacements.
He had been cited by a Rugby Football Union commissioner on three counts: two of striking an opponent and one of unsportsmanlike behaviour. The panel, featuring the former Wasps back-row forward Buster White, acquitted him of both punching charges. Jack Rowell, the director of rugby at Bath, described a fight between Grewcock and Connors, for which both men were sent to the sin-bin, as "a tussle rather than a brawl".
Rowell, who first capped Grewcock during his spell as England coach, was suitably relieved. "Given where we are in the Premiership, this was important," he said. "Danny is a key player and his absence would have been very serious. It would have damaged the fabric of our team.
"The headguard incident was simply a case of his venting his frustration. Will he spoken to about his behaviour? I've just done it, man to man and eyeball to eyeball."
He refused to say whether the costs included the price of a new headguard for Connors.
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