Wallabies enforcer Lachie Swinton is available to play against France next month after a SANZAAR judiciary surprisingly determined that his red card in Super Rugby trans-Tasman should not have been issued.
Waratahs flanker Swinton was sent off by Australian referee on Saturday for a dangerous cleanout of Chiefs rival Lachlan Boshier at Brookvale Oval.
Given Swinton's priors – he was sent off on Test debut against the All Blacks last year – most observers were expecting a lengthy ban.
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"Normally in the wheel of suspensions it's an automatic three weeks," former Wallaby Morgan Turinui said on Stan Sport after the match.
"He won't get the discount of three because of the red card he received for Australia, I wouldn't think so.
"If he does get found guilty he may have six weeks on the sideline."
But judicial committee chairman Stephen Hardy ruled that Swinton "had made a genuine attempt to clean the defensive player away from the ball and that with mitigating factors, glancing contact was made with the defensive player's head."
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Hardy added that "after careful analysis of World Rugby's head contact process and dangerous cleanout framework, that this contact, while amounting to foul play, was not with a sufficient degree of danger to warrant a red card."
On Sunday, Wallabies coach Dave Rennie downplayed the severity of Swinton's foul play.
"In the context of the other red and yellow cards given in the last few weeks, it's on the lower end of the scale," Rennie argued on Stan Sport.
"He certainly didn't have a big run up in and he's just trying to get in.
"I spoke to Lachie Boshier today who said he didn't even notice that he'd been smacked on the jaw, so that probably puts it in context."
Rennie said some head contact was inevitable in rugby and felt a "yellow card would have been appropriate."
"He needs to be more accurate, we don't want him to lose that aggressive edge."
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