In a game packed full of incident Wales second-row Bradley Davies was also cited for a similar challenge on Donnacha Ryan but the committee opted to suspend the Blues forward for seven weeks, ruling him out for the rest of the championship.

A spokesman for the committee said: “The player (Bradley Davies) lifted his opponent beyond a horizontal position but did not bring him to the ground safely contrary to Law 10.4(j) and the IRB's particular emphasis on this aspect of the game, merited a top end entry to the IRB's table of sanctions.”

The Committee said it had added two weeks on to the entry point ban of 10 weeks to “reflect the need for a deterrent for this type of foul play”, but had then applied the maximum possible reduction of five weeks because of Davies' “admission of guilt, his previous good disciplinary record and his conduct at the hearing”.