Former Saints wing Chris Ashton has been suspended for one week following an RFU disciplinary hearing and will miss England’s opening autumn Test against Fiji on November 10.
Ashton is sidelined from Sunday November 4 and is free to play again on Sunday November 11, meaning he will miss no further fixtures for his club, Saracens.
The 25-year-old league convert, after receiving the ban, said on Twitter: “Cheers for the messages, been suspended for a week. Gutted that I’ll miss the Fiji match.”
Ashton appeared before the panel of His Honour Judge Jeff Blackett, Jeremy Summers and Julian Morris after receiving three yellow cards for foul play this season.
He received a post-match Level One citing - treated in the regulations as a yellow card for the totting up system - for a dangerous tackle on Vasily Artemyev in last Saturday’s Aviva Premiership match at Saints.
Earlier this season he was shown yellow cards for dangerous charging in the matches against London Irish (September 1) and Exeter Chiefs (September 23).
Judge Blackett said: “We were guided by the IRB recommendation that a one week suspension was appropriate for totting up offences. The player was not released back to his club by England for Saracens’ game on Sunday November 4 so it would be inappropriate to commence the suspension immediately.
“We have therefore deferred commencement until Sunday November 4 so he misses a game he would have played in. We are concerned about his tackling technique and encouraged that he and his coaches work to correct it.
“We would like to add that Chris Ashton took a realistic and mature approach to proceedings and expressed genuine contrition.”
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