Alesana Tuilagi banned for 5 weeks for 'kneeing' Japanese tackler

Alesana Tuilagi has been banned for five weeks for what has been called an act of foul play, contrary to Law 10.4(a). The incident occurred in the second minute of play against Japan, when tackler Harumichi Tatekawa unfortunately made contact with Tuilagi's knee. Tatekawa required some treatment but nothing was made of it at the time, with nobody seeing anything wrong, including the referee and his TMO, who has Hawkeye and is part of a team of three looking at foul play incidents. Yet, independent Citing Commissioner Yves Thieffine (France) looked at the video footage and chose to cite Tuilag…