Glasgow Warriors’ Matt Fagerson will miss both festive legs of the 1872 Cup matches against Edinburgh after being handed a three-week suspension for his red card in Saturday’s loss to La Rochelle in the Heineken Champions Cup.
The 21-year-old’s absence will leave a huge hole in the Warriors’ back row for the contests with their inter-city rivals. Fagerson has been the first choice No 8 all season appearing in ten of their eleven games during the current campaign.
Fagerson was given a straight red card in the final moments of Saturday’s game by referee Wayne Barnes for leading with the forearm to the throat of tackler Danny Priso. The TMO spotted the offence and a try scored by Scott Cummings which would have secured at least a draw against La Rochelle. Instead Glasgow went down 12-7.
An independent disciplinary panel convened by European Professional Club Rugby and consisting of chair Gareth Graham (England), Val Toma (Romania) and Yannick Jauzion (France) considered Fagerson’s offence which carried a potential maximum sanction of a year.
However a statement from EPCR found that the offence merited the mid-range of sanction, which is a maximum of six weeks.
“There were no aggravating factors, and taking into account the player’s guilty plea, clear disciplinary record and expression of remorse, the committee reduced the sanction by the maximum of 50 per cent before imposing a three-week suspension,” added the statement.
It means Fagerson will miss the next two games against Edinburgh, as well as Glasgow’s Guinness PRO14 match on January 4 against Benetton. He’ll next be available for the next Heineken Champions Cup pool match at home to Exeter Chiefs on January 11.