The Leicester Tigers suffered a fifth successive defeat in all competitions when they lost at home to Saracens last weekend on a scoreline of 17-29.
The Tigers entered that game off the back of two defeats to Munster in the Champions Cup but they were unable to stem the tide against a side also looking to end a bad run of form.
The turning point of that game was the two yellow cards received by Jonny May, one each in both halves of the match. As a result, the Tigers were without May and were down to 14 men for a total of 21 minutes – when you are playing a side of Saracens’ quality, it’s going to be difficult to come out on top in such circumstances.
To make matters worse, there were some concerns that May would receive some sort of retrospective suspension due to the red card that he received. The Tigers are up against the Exeter Chiefs at Sandy Park, no easy task, especially without one of the in-form wingers in the country. Thankfully, May will be available for that fixture, a statement from the RFU confirmed today:
The charges against Leicester Tigers Jonny May were heard on papers by an independent single judicial officer. The player was shown a red card after receiving two yellow cards – Law 10.4(m) – in the match Leicester Tigers v Saracens on Sunday 24 December 2017.
Both yellow cards were awarded for deliberate knock ons. The first yellow card was issued in the 9th minute of the match and the second was issued in the 69th minute of the match.
May consented to the matter being dealt with on the papers.
The sanction table set out at Appendix 1 to RFU Regulation 19 here determines that the sanction for two yellow cards, where both are given for technical offences, is sending off sufficient.
The player is free to play again immediately.
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