mobanmarketEx-Ireland hooker Bernard Jackman has poured cold water on suggestions that Johnny Sexton could miss the Rugby World Cup.
News was broken by City A.M. on Sunday that the star fly-half had received a misconduct letter from European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR) because of his behaviour after Leinster’s Champions Cup defeat to La Rochelle.
Sexton was alleged to have sworn at referee Jaco Peyper following the clash, stating “You are a f***ing disgrace”, which was one of three counts of misconduct.
Reports of lengthy ban
City A.M. then reported that the 37-year-old could be handed a ban of 24 weeks, which would end both his World Cup hopes and his career, with the pivot set to retire after the conclusion of the global tournament.
Jackman, however, would be shocked should EPCR come down that hard on Sexton, with the 47-year-old deeming a short ban appropriate for the Ireland playmaker.
“We’re not sure how strong this case is and certainly some of the speculation about a 24-week ban and things like that seems to be quite outlandish,” he told RTE Radio 1.
“You’d imagine the EPCR, if they are going to bring discipline into it, they would need to do it quite quickly. It’s dragging on quite a long time.
“I wouldn’t say there’s any risk of him not being able to play in the World Cup.
“If there is going to be a disciplinary (action) I would say it’d be a fine or maybe a small suspension, maybe putting him out of warm-up games. But I think this will go away quite quickly.”
Not in line with other bans
While protecting officials and the integrity of the game is paramount, Jackman believes that a long ban would not be in line with what is handed out for foul play.
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“When you hear of a 24-week ban and then you see some of the suspensions that have been handed out for actual physical acts, which endanger players’ safety… this was in the heat of battle, very emotional after a game Leinster lost in another Champions Cup final when they haven’t won it for a while,” he said.
“I think referees, officials all understand there’s emotion involved, there’s a lot of passion involved.
“While it wasn’t something that we condone, I think this can be dealt with pretty easily over the next week or two.”