McConnell and Blackrock await fate

Mark McConnell, the Connacht lock and captain, and Blackrock College will learn their fate this week from the IRFU Disciplinary Committee and the Leinster Branch Executive respectively after McConnell's dismissal at Donnybrook on Friday and Blackrock's failure to fulfil their Kitty O'Shea Leinster Championship fixture at Greystones on Saturday.

McConnell was sent off by match referee Gareth Doyle, overseeing his first interprovincial, for stamping on Leinster prop Emmet Byrne in the provinces' opening Interprovincial Championship match. His case will be heard in Dublin on Thursday evening.

A three-man panel will be drawn from the six-man committee, comprising of Peter Boyle (chairman), John Callaghan, Billy Glynn, Caleb Powell, Bob McConkey and Jeff Smith. The Connacht captain will be permitted to attend the hearing and may be accompanied by a Connacht representative.

Although it looked a serious incident and he took a dim view of McConnell being dismissed, Connacht coach Steph Nel will appeal to the union that his captain's indiscretion was accidental. "If you look at the video Mark could definitely not have seen what he was doing." It may help McConnell's and Connacht's cause that the Leinster captain Liam Toland, who was close by, reckoned that McConnell's stamp - which left Byrne with a nasty gash just under his eye and a couple of stitches - was accidental.

Either McConnell or the disciplinary committee may also use video evidence if they so wish. Indeed, in a change from last season's IRFU disciplinary procedures, the committee may also refer to video evidence to sanction other players for foul play.

Aside from the automatic fine for his captain as part of Connacht's own disciplinary system, Nel will also fine Marnus Uijs for punching Toland in a separate incident, though as Connacht's new South African hooker was sin binned for it, he cannot be further punished by the disciplinary committee. Bemoaning his side's lack of discipline and "a lot of off-the-ball incidents", Nel said: "that will not happen again, I can assure you of that. It spoiled the game and fans don't pay to see that."

Like Nel, Matt Williams admitted his "disappointment" with some aspects of Leinster's discipline on Friday night when both Eric Miller and Bob Casey were sin binned. Regarding the former dropping his bind on a scrum and following through on an opposing prop, Williams admitted "we spoke about it in private and left no one in any doubt about what we felt". However, he accepted the contention by Casey and Leinster players for the latter's offence that the lock hadn't heard the whistle.

"I've coached under sin-bin laws for years and I've no doubt that you can't win games without players on the field. I think they're a very good thing and I would like it to be used more for `professional' fouls," added Williams.

Leinster's injury list, meanwhile, has lengthened. Gary Halpin sustained a pinched facet joint in his back and is out of contention for Friday, while Reggie Corrigan (pinched nerve in his lower back) and Emmet Byrne (strained ankle) cannot train. However, Brian O'Driscoll returned to training yesterday, though he will not be considered for a starting place against Munster.

As an aside to the crowd's general disappointment with Friday night's fare at Donnybrook, the public announcement system was both faulty and too loud. The Leinster Branch secretary Sandy Heffernan conceded the system was "unsatisfactory" and that rectifying it for Leinster's next home game would be "top of the hit list".

As regards Blackrock being in the dock, it transpires the club have not been thrown out of the Leinster Championship per se, and that their fate will be decided by the Branch's Executive meeting tonight. The aforementioned Heffernan confirmed yesterday that he had merely "refused them a postponement". This he had done verbally to the Blackrock secretary Gordon Anderton on Friday following the club's written request for a postponement on Wednesday due to the club being without 50 of their 60 first squad players - 10 of whom were contracted to the IRFU, 12 more were competing for the club in Sunday's final of the All-Ireland Sevens, while six more were injured and 22 were abroad on summer student work or annual vacations.

It could still be that the executive will evict Blackrock from the competition or that the game and the points be awarded to Greystones, or even that the game will be rescheduled for a midweek date. Blackrock will argue for the latter, or at any rate that they not be thrown out of the competition. Ironically, their case will be made by their representative Pat Cranfield, who is also the Leinster Branch president.