Chris Ashton handed seven-week ban

Sale Sharks fullback Chris Ashton has been handed a ban of seven weeks following his recent red-card incident during the pre-season friendly against Castres last week.

Ashton was sent-off by referee Roman Poite at the start of the second half for a tip tackle on Rory Kockott and was cited for a breach of Law 9.18 that deals with "A player must not lift an opponent off the ground and drop or drive that player so that their head and/or upper body make contact with the ground".

As a result, the 31-year-old will miss the first six weeks in the Gallagher Premiership on what will be his maiden outing with the AJ Bell Stadium outfit since switching from Toulon ahead of the 2018/19 season.

Panel chair Richard Whittam QC in his ruling stated that the action from Ashton was unwarranted and his poor disciplinary record led to an additional one week ban.

“It is an important principle of rugby regulation to prevent injury to others,” Richard Whittam QC after the hearing.

“Provocation is not a defence to foul play and lifting a player and dropping that player such that his head makes contact with the ground has the potential to cause serious injury.

"While in this case the panel accepts no injury was caused, it still amounted to foul play that clearly met the red card threshold.

“The absence of injury and that the action was as a result of a level of provocation, meant that the panel found this was a low-end entry point.

"Mr Ashton’s poor disciplinary record was an aggravating feature and the panel added one week to reflect that. The panel considered at length the prescriptive list of factors in relation to mitigation, but none were sufficient to reduce the length of the sanction.”

Earlier, Ashton was recalled in England's training squad for the autumn internationals following his rich vein of form for Toulon last season and he also scored a hat-trick against the red rose team when he represented Barbarians earlier this year.