Tom Court, the Ulster prop forward, appeared today before an independent Pro12 Disciplinary committee in Neath, South Wales, following a red card in the league game between Ulster and Leinster at Ravenhill last Friday.

Court was sent off for a tip tackle on Leinster secondrow Devin Toner. The Disciplinary committee, chaired by Simon Thomas, alongside Terry Vaux and Robert Williams (all from Wales), viewed the footage of the incident and listened to representations by, and on behalf of, the player via video-link.

The committee decided that the offence, a dangerous “lifting” tackle contrary to Law 10.4(j), was at the low end of the IRB’s scale of sanctions for this type of offence and, in imposing a two-week suspension, they applied a deterrent factor of an additional week but then reduced the sanction by three weeks, to reflect, among other factors, the player’s acceptance of the red card and his previous excellent disciplinary record.

Tom Court is therefore suspended until midnight on Sunday, May 18th and has the right of appeal, which will rule him out of Saturday's game against Munster at Thomond Park and the semi-final the following weekend.