Ulster back row Iain Henderson has had his red card against Munster overturned and is free to play in the Pro12 against Glasgow this Saturday.
Henderson appeared before an independent Pro12 disciplinary committee today in relation to the red card he received for striking Ronan O'Mahony with his head in the derby clash at Kingspan Stadium last Saturday.
The disciplinary committee, chaired by Roger Morris, along with Rhian Williams and Ray Wilton (all from Wales), having viewed the footage of the incident and listened to representations by and on behalf of Henderson, decided that the act did not warrant a red card.
The panel viewed the incident in close-up (which the match referee had not been able to do at the time) and concluded that the player's initial contact with his opponent had not in fact been with his head, but with his arm.
As a result no sanction has been imposed on the player, who is free to resume playing immediately.
The committee recategorised the offence under law 10.4(j), which states that lifting a player from the ground and dropping or driving that player into the ground whilst the player's feet are still off the ground such that the player's head and/or upper body come into contact with the ground is dangerous play, and upheld the red card.
The panel deemed Gori's actions to have been reckless rather than intentional and they considered his actions to have been at the lower end of World Rugby's range of sanctions, and imposed a three-week suspension.
But due to the requirement for the sanction to have meaningful consequences, and specifically to take account of the close season, the disciplinary committee held that the suspension should end at midnight on 30 August 2015, with the player ruled out of the final Pro12 match of the season, together with two of Italy's summer international matches prior to the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
