Jerry Flannery cited for kick at Alexis Palisson's legs

Ireland hooker Jerry Flannery has been cited for his moment of madness against France on the weekend which resulted in French winger Alexis Palisson needing to leave the field injured.

Flannery will appear before a Six Nations independent committee after he was cited for the ‘alleged kick’ at the Stade de France on Saturday. The hearing will take place this week, and doesn’t look good for Flannery, or Ireland, as there’s no doubt he’ll be getting a few weeks on the sideline for this.

Incredibly, he was only penalised at the time, with both referee Wayne Barnes and his assistant ref failing to see the incident clearly. In fact, the touchie said it was a shoulder, and Flannery stayed on the field.

A red card should have been issued at the time, so Flannery will definitely be in hot water at the hearing later this week, as he’ll struggle to explain how he took a flyhack at a ball that was bouncing around a good few seconds before Palisson cleanly collected it.

The bizarre thing is that Flannery looked apologetic, as though it were an accident, but you can clearly see that he had plenty of time to pull out of the challenge. That makes it all the more malicious, and puzzling to be quite frank.

Such a fuss was made of the trip that Alun Wyn Jones made when England played Wales a week back, and the impact it had on his team’s chances in the match.

That misdemeanour simply doesn’t compare to this incident, and Ireland will surely play the rest of the championship without Flannery’s services, perhaps further wrecking their hopes of a successful campaign, following on from a heavy 33-10 defeat to the French.

UPDATE 17 FEB 2010:
Flannery has been suspended for six weeks. You can read more about it here.

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