Stormers prop has 3-week ban for dangerous tackle overturned on appeal

Stormers prop Sazi Sandi is free to play after an appeal to overturn his three-week ban following a red card in the United Rugby Championship (URC) was successful. 

Sandi received the sanction for a dangerous tackle in a URC round 3 clash against Edinburgh.

After a disciplinary panel initially opted to give Sandi a three-week ban following the red card, the player decided to appeal as the incident appeared to be an accidental clash of heads.

A panel consisting of Roddy Dunlop KC (Scotland), Jennifer Donovan (Ireland) and Nigel Williams (Wales) met on 18 October to review the appeal.

They found that there was mitigating evidence to reduce the red card to a yellow card and therefore overturn the original sanction as well as expunging the red card from Sanzi's record.

As a result, Sanzi is now free to play and is available for the Stormers URC clash with Cardiff on Saturday.

Kick-off is at 20:35.