Sale full-back Chris Ashton has been given a seven-week suspension for the tip tackle which earned him a red card against Castres last week.
The tackle was on Rory Kockott and contravened law 9.18 and while Ashton didn’t accept the charge, he was found guilty by an independent panel.
Ashton, 31, will now miss the first six rounds of the upcoming Premiership season and will not be able to play again for the Sharks until October 9.
“It is an important principle of rugby regulation to prevent injury to others,” said independent panel chair Richard Whittam QC after the hearing.
“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.”