Ireland to 'wait and see' about Garry Ringrose red card sanction

Simon Easterby is hoping that Garry Ringrose may be available for the final round of the Guinness Six Nations but will likely have to plan without the experienced centre.

The Leinster back is facing a ban after he was sent off for a dangerous challenge in the first half of Ireland's 27-18 win over Wales on Saturday.

Ringrose made head-on-head contact with Wales centre Ben Thomas, who was also the recipient of the tackle that led to France's Romain Ntamack being red-carded in round one.

Initially given a yellow card, the colour was upgraded to red for Ringrose after a bunker review.

Under the new law, Ireland were allowed to replace Ringrose after 20 minutes and Bundee Aki came on to steady the ship in the 52nd minute, making a number of important contributions that helped Ireland overturn a 18-10 deficit.

Ringrose had no previous cards in international rugby over 65 caps before Saturday, and was only once yellow-carded for Leinster, back in the 2016/17 season.

He may point to a late drop in height by Thomas but he'll have to convince a committee that he wasn't reckless if he wants the maximum discount applied.

Similar cases in the past have resulted in initial six-week bans with previous clean records taken into account for 50% off. Passing the 'tackle school' exam can result in another week off.

"You know Garry, he's not a malicious player," said Easterby when asked about the red card.

"The speed at which he works is why that happened.

"He accelerates so hard off the line, just gets his timing wrong and unfortunately that's it. It felt like he maybe was a bit lower than they thought and he did try and dip but not enough.

"We'll have to wait and see how they view that."

Ireland paid a heavy price when Peter O'Mahony was red-carded