Jan-Hendrik Wessels has failed in his appeal against a controversial suspension, but the South African has had his ban reduced by one week.
The Bulls hooker has been ruled out of South Africa's Autumn Nations Series campaign, including their meeting with Ireland at the end of November, after picking up an eight-week ban for allegedly grabbing the testicles of Connacht forward Josh Murphy during their United Rugby Championship meeting in Galway earlier this month.
Murphy was shown a red card on the night after striking Wessels after the alleged grab. However that red card has since been rescinded.
Wessels was found guilty of breaching Law 9.27, which states that a player must not do anything that is against the spirit of good sportsmanship, which includes grabbing, twisting or squeezing the genitals.
The player had denied committing the act, which was not picked up by TV cameras at the time. However, the disciplinary panel were satisfied that an act of foul play had occurred and found the incident met the red card threshold.
The South African was initially given a nine-game ban, which was reduced from the low-end entry point of 12 matches.
Wessels and the Bulls appealed the ruling this week, challenging both the ruling of the initial hearing and the length of the suspension.
A statement from the URC has confirmed that while an independent disciplinary panel has upheld the ruling, it has reduced the ban by a further week to eight games.
"After reviewing the grounds of appeal and hearing from the Player and his Club the appeal committee dismissed the substantive grounds of appeal, but reduced the ban by one week," the URC said.
"The panel did so on the basis that the initial reduction from the low-end entry point [of 12 weeks] did not take into account an aspect of the Player's conduct in the context of the case.
"Accordingly, the appeal committee determined that four weeks should be deducted from the headline entry suspension."
Wessels will now be free to play from Saturday, 20 December. His ban will include all five games for South Africa in November, as well as the Bulls' Investec Champions Cup pool games against Bordeaux-Begles and Northampton Saints.
Listen to the RTÉ Rugby podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Follow a live blog of Ireland v New Zealand on Saturday from 8.10pm on the RTÉ News App and on rte.ie/sport.
