Chris Ashton banned for seven weeks for red card for tip tackle on Rory Kockott despite claim he was ‘eye-gouged’

The Independent understands that Ashton accused a Castres player of eye-gouging him in Sale’s 20-17 victory that Steve Diamond has said was ‘brutal’ and ‘violent’

Sale Sharks director of rugby Steve Diamond has accused French champions Castres of deploying “brutal” and “violent” tactics against his side that led to Chris Ashton receiving a seven-week ban for “self-defence” after he claimed to have been eye-gouged.

Ashton was found guilty of a tip-tackle on Castres scrum-half Rory Kockott in last week’s 20-17 victory for Sale, a match that saw three red cards and three yellow cards issued by referee Romain Poite, and leaves him unable to play again until 9 October.

Appearing at a disciplinary hearing in London on Thursday, Ashton denied the charge, with video evidence showing the Sale full-back jumping off the ground and lifting Kockott up into the air by his legs, causing him to land on his head.

However, The Independent understands that Ashton alleged in the hearing that Kockott had attempted to eye-gouge him during their skirmish on the turf that triggered the incident. Kockott has been handed a one-week ban for shoving Ashton, but no action has been taken against him for any allegation of eye-gouging the England international, and although the disciplinary committee did take the claimed provocation into account, they extended Ashton’s ban by a week from the low-entry six weeks due to his poor disciplinary record – having now served more the 30 weeks of suspensions in the last two years.

“It is an important principle of rugby regulation to prevent injury to others,” said Independent panel chair Richard Whittam QC. “Provocation is not a defence to foul play and lifting a player and dropping that player such that his head makes contact with the ground has the potential to cause serious injury. While in this case the panel accepts no injury was caused, it still amounted to foul play that clearly met the red card threshold.

"The absence of injury and that the action was as a result of a level of provocation, meant that the panel found this was a low-end entry point. Mr Ashton's poor disciplinary record was an aggravating feature and the panel added one week to reflect that. The panel considered at length the prescriptive list of factors in relation to mitigation, but none were sufficient to reduce the length of the sanction."

However, Diamond leapt to the defence of his star signing, who joined the club in the summer after being released two years early from his contract with Toulon.

“If you’re defending yourself on a rugby pitch when things go on and are over and above what we expect then red mist doesn’t come into it. It was self-defence I would say,” Diamond said at Thursday’s Premiership launch. “Chris Ashton defended himself as any of you lot would defend yourself.

“I’m pissed off that he got sent off but in extreme circumstances where he defended himself. I’d take a red card for any other Sale player if they defended themselves the way Chris Ashton did.”

Asked if he’d ever seen a pre-season match like it, Diamond replied: “No. I’ve got seven people unfit to train this week because of it. Brutal. Violence against Sale from Castres.

“Fantastic if you’re watching it but for your players, concussion, broken ribs, you name it. It was a brutal, violent French side a week before we kick off the season. They’re a top side in France, did what we intended to do – they didn’t like getting beaten – but we took some serious injuries. You’ve got to take the rough with the smooth but I think the officials during the game and afterwards haven’t looked at it with scrutiny it deserved.”

Ashton can be seen lifting the legs of Kockott after conceding a penalty (RFU)

The Sale and England back has been banned for seven weeks (RFU)

Ashton will not be eligible to play again until 9 October (RFU)

Kockott was also sent-off for his part in the incident, while Ashton’s teammate Alexandru Tarus was shown a red card for dangerous play in a ruck that he was found not guilty of, leaving him free to start the season for Sale.

The ban is a blow to Ashton’s hopes of forcing his way back into the England squad, with Eddie Jones recalling him for his recent pre-season training camp after his return to the Premiership. With Ashton now ineligible to play for Sale until mid-October, he will have just one match in the European Challenge Cup trip to Perpignan to prove he deserves a place in Jones’ squad for the autumn internationals, where England face South Africa, New Zealand, Japan and Australia in November.

Ashton faces a race against time to prove himself to Eddie Jones (Getty)

Jones will name a training squad on 20 September for a three-day meet in Bristol at the end of that weekend, which Ashton can still be a part of as he is only banned from playing in matches. However, the sanction is the latest blemish on Ashton’s record, having been banned for a combination of 23 weeks in 2016 for making contact with the eyes of Ulster centre Luke Marshall and biting Northampton Saints prop Alex Waller.

Sale begin their season on 1 September with a trip to Harlequins, and Ashton will also miss subsequent Premiership games against Worcester Warriors, Exeter Chiefs, Wasps, Leicester Tigers and Newcastle Falcons.

Steve Diamond accused Castres of being 'brutal' and 'violent' in last Friday's encounter (Getty)

Diamond doesn’t expect the set-back to affect Ashton mentally though, and also drew on the setbacks that Sale wings Denny Solomona and Marland Yarde have overcome, having fallen foul of the rules with England and Harlequins respectively. “If we lose Chris for whatever number of weeks it means he starts the season without us but we’ve got able cover without him. We’re trying to keep rugby going in the north as football gets enormous and to do that we need to play a certain style of rugby. And Chris adds to that, with Solomona and with Yarde, we’ve got the dirty dozen haven’t we?”