Byrne banned for Wales

Wales star Lee Byrne has been banned from the RBS 6 Nations opener against England at Twickenham next week.

Byrne must serve a two-week suspension after admitting a misconduct charge following his brief appearance as a 16th player during the Ospreys' Heineken Cup victory over Leicester last Saturday.

An independent European Rugby Cup disciplinary committee, sitting in Dublin, fined the Ospreys €25,000 after they also pleaded guilty to a misconduct complaint.

But the disciplinary panel ruled there had been ‘no material effect on the match’. The result therefore stands, and Ospreys will meet Biarritz in this season's Heineken Cup quarter-finals on 10 April.

Leicester, led by their chief executive Peter Wheeler and chairman Peter Tom, lodged an official complaint with ERC after the second-half incident at Swansea's Liberty Stadium.

But Tigers' hopes for the game to be replayed have been dashed.

Byrne, who went off with a bloodied toe and was replaced by Sonny Parker, returned three minutes later without any of his Ospreys team-mates going off.

Chaos reigned on the touchline, with match referee Alan Lewis berating an Ospreys touchline official, while he also did not award Leicester the penalty they should have had for Ospreys temporarily fielding an extra player.

Leicester claimed Byrne was involved in halting a break by Tigers scrum-half Ben Youngs as Tigers looked to claw back a 17-12 deficit.

Fly-half Dan Biggar eventually departed the action, as Ospreys moved back to 15 players.

In a statement, ERC said: ‘Ospreys and Mr Byrne pleaded guilty to the misconduct complaints.

‘During the hearing, the independent disciplinary committee heard submissions from representatives of ERC and Ospreys and from a number of witnesses, and considered statements from various individuals and video evidence from the match.

‘The committee also heard submissions from representatives of Leicester Tigers.

‘The independent Disciplinary Committee found that Mr Byrne had re-entered the pitch without the referee's permission and that he knew, or ought to have known, that he needed that permission.

‘The committee found that this represented a clear breach of the substitution protocol, which forms part of the Heineken Cup 2009/10 tournament rules, and that the club could have done more to ensure that such a breach did not occur.’