Baxter's relief after Chudley cleared

By Mark Stevens
25/5/2016

Exeter Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter has spoken of his relief after it emerged a citing charge against Will Chudley had been dismissed.

The talented scrum-half was summoned to appear before an RFU disciplinary hearing in Bristol on Tuesday after he was charged with allegedly kicking Joe Launchbury during last Saturday's Aviva Premiership play-off semi-final against Wasps.

Although no action was taken during the match itself, the 28-year-old was later cited by the game's citing commissioner.

Together, Baxter and Chudley attended the hearing, along with a club legal representative, to answer the charge.

Following submission by the club, officials and representatives from Wasps, the panel dismissed the charge, thus allowing Chudley to be available for Saturday's Premiership final against Saracens at Twickenham.

In his weekly media briefing, Baxter gave his verdict on the outcome, including praising England international Launchbury and Wasps for their support towards his player.

"The incident was seen by the television match official, and although that wasn't put down by the citing commissioner, it was seen, it was looked at in detail by the TMO who decided in his opinion it was accidental contact and didn't feel he should bring it to the referee's attention," said Baxter.

"It was dealt with at the time, but probably then it was a little bit naughty by the TV to keep replaying the incident because I think there is an unwritten agreement that once the officials have made a decision on something, that should really be the end of it.

"We then went into the citing and I think what people need to be award of is there was an angle that wasn't shown on TV, that does show pretty clearly that the ball is available for Will to play, it was open, it was quite fair for him to have a play of the ball.

"If you look at it, his leg does receive a pretty big deflection off Matt Mullan's knee and thigh as he puts his foot in, which brushes it against Joe's head.

"The Wasps officials and management after the game were great: they didn't think it was a particularly bad incident, and they were prepared to report that after the game and to the disciplinary panel.

"Joe Launchbury himself put in a very positive statement in support of Will that he didn't feel it was anything other than a very minor incident and didn't really think anything untoward had happened at the time either."

Baxter continued: "Will Chudley, a guy who has never had a yellow card in his professional career and is one of the least penalised players in the Premiership, can play in the final. And I think everyone would agree that's a good result.

"To be fair to the whole process probably after what happened and the initial angle shown on TV, I can completely understand why the citing commissioner put it forward. And on that basis it was probably a correct citing.

"But now the result's happened it's important everyone understands what the process was. The process was very thorough, they obviously had different angles that weren't shown on TV and weren't discussed."