Maro Itoje doubt for Saracens play-off run after dangerous Bath tackle

Saracens could be without Maro Itoje for their Premiership play-off run-in after the England lock was cited for a dangerous tackle against Bath on Friday evening.

Itoje was eventually yellow-carded for a tackle on Alfie Barbeary in the 29th minute of his team’s 15-12 victory after television match official (TMO) David Rose alerted Luke Pearce to the challenge.

Following a number of replays, both at normal speed and in slow-motion, Pearce sent Itoje to the sin bin with the rationale that the blow was not “flush” to Bearbeary’s head.

“It is head-on-head contact, it is foul play because four [Itoje] is upright,” Pearce explained. “It’s not a flush blow because it’s off his shoulder and then a little bit of contact with his head. It’s high danger mitigated, so it’s yellow.”

“It is high danger, because it is head-on-head,” Pearce later added to Ben Spencer, the Bath captain. “But because [the tackle] goes shoulder onto head, that’s a mitigating reason and that’s why it’s yellow and not red.”

Itoje will appear before an independent disciplinary hearing on Tuesday and could be handed a three-week ban. Even if that is reduced by a week on completion of World Rugby’s coaching intervention programme, commonly known as ‘tackle school’, the 29-year-old would still miss league fixtures against Bristol Bears and Sale Sharks.

A more severe sanction, although unlikely, would rule him out of the Premiership play-off semi-final, should Saracens secure qualification.

Saracens could argue that Itoje’s offence was not worthy of a red card. Owen Farrell, the club captain, insisted to Pearce at the time that Itoje and Barbeary collided in a “chest-on-chest” fashion.

As if to underline the difficulty of these split-second decisions, Johann van Graan, the Bath head coach, was adamant in a TNT Sports interview later in the first half that Itoje and Barbeary suffered a straightforward head clash.

“We’ll let the referee deal with it, but what I saw was head-on-head,” he said.

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