By Duncan Wood
October 9 2002

The panel acknowledged that he was very much sinned against but took the butting incident seriously all the same. Julian White has been banned from all rugby for 10 weeks. He's out until December 9th.

Here are the findings of the RFU panel:

"The panel found as a matter of fact that the scrum collapsed, and as the players stood up, Graham Rowntree drove his head across Julian White's face to his left side," said Blackett, Jeff Probyn and Paul Murphy in their adjudication.

"Julian White was clearly struck a number of times by Leicester players before the incident, and as he stood up, the heads of both players were in contact."

"The Bristol pack was moving backwards, and the locks were disengaged and standing up. Julian White moved backwards so that his head was at arm's length from Graham Rowntree."

"He then grabbed Graham Rowntree by the lapels, and deliberately moved his head forward, striking a glancing blow on the side of Graham Rowntree's face and coming to rest on his shoulder."

"Although the contact was slight, the intent to strike was clear."

"We believe the evidence of the two officials was precise, cogent and clear, and that the evidence of the video supports the officials."

"Graham Rowntree provided a written statement that he did not feel a head-butt, but this is inconsistent with his action immediately after the incident, in which he indicated that he had been struck by a head."

"In all the circumstances, the panel find on the balance of probability that Julian White is guilty of striking an opponent with his head contrary to Law 10 (4) (A)."

"The offence of striking an opponent with the head is a serious one because of the potential damage that such an act could cause."

"This is reflected in the International Rugby Board guidelines, which provides for a suspension of between seven and 36 weeks."

"In our opinion that would be appropriate for an offence where the head-butt was in cold-blood with a deliberate cocking of the head and a hard strike to the opponent's face."

"In our opinion, this act was at the very lowest end of the scale because Julian White reacted as a result of extreme provocation by Leicester players, his reaction was instinctive and contact was very slight and Graham Rowntree suffered no injury."

"However, we are also concerned that this is the third offence in two-and-a-half years where Julian White has been sent off for violent behaviour, and we have increased the sentence from the very minimum to take his record into account.

"In all the circumstances, therefore, we impose a suspension of 10 weeks commencing from September 30 - the date from which Julian White was suspended from his own club. He will be free to play again on December 9."

White will now be banned from representing club and country until December 9th which rules him out of Bristol's first European Cup matches and also England's international matches in the Autumn. Player and club are believed to be considering their next move.

It's a bitter blow for Bristol following the news that Neil McCarthy will miss 6 months due to a serious knee injury.

So, Rowntree made first contact with his head and nothing is done to him. Several other Leicester players punched White and nothing is done to them. Where's the justice in that?

A final comment. A Bristol Rovers player, Paul Tait, was red carded for butting an opponent at the weekend. His likely ban? 3 matches...