The Wales and Exeter prop Tomas Francis has been cited for allegedly making contact with the eye area of Dan Cole during England’s 25-21 Six Nations victory at Twickenham on Saturday.
Francis, who came on as a replacement for Samson Lee early in the second half to shore up Wales’ creaking scrum, appeared to drag his hand across Cole’s face, with his fingers closing to make a grasping motion. The incident was spotted by the television match official, George Ayub, after Cole had been penalised and sent to the sin-bin.
Ayub informed the match referee, Craig Joubert, that contact had been made with Cole’s nose rather than eye area but this was not the message that the South African official relayed to Francis on the pitch.
The sentences for making contact with the eye area – often mistakenly conflated with eye gouging – vary greatly. The maximum sentence for a lower end offence is 12 weeks while the most serious cases can result in a sentence of up to three years. The England and Saracens wing Chris Ashton was forced to miss this year’s entire Six Nations after being banned for 10 weeks for a similar offence against Ulster’s Luke Marshall. The England captain, Dylan Hartley, was also banned early in his career for a similar offence.
Meanwhile England have called up the Sale hooker Tommy Taylor as an injury replacement for Jamie George, who was ruled out of the final two weeks of the tournament with a biceps injury. Taylor announced earlier this year that he will join Wasps this summer.
