It’s D-Day for Venter as appeal decision awaits
SARACENS director of rugby Brendan Venter will discover tonight whether his touchline ban will be overturned for Saturday’s Premiership final with Leicester at Twickenham.
Venter was handed a 14-week ban by an RFU disciplinary panel last week for “making provocative and inappropriate gestures” during the league game against the Tigers on 8 May.
The South African was also accused of “disdain” in eating a biscuit and throwing sweet wrappers as he awaited his sentence.
Saracens angrily lodged an appeal against the decision with chief executive Edward Griffiths describing the punishment as “disproportionate”.
Since then, a war of words has broken out between Saracens and the RFU, culminating in Griffiths expressing “sadness and disappointment” of an “extraordinary attack” on the club by RFU disciplinary officer Jeff Blackett.