Ebbw Vale lock Curtis Gregory banned for eight weeks after stamp

Ebbw Vale lock Curtis Gregory has been banned for eight weeks after stamping on the leg of Llandovery captain Joe Powell, according to BBC Sport.

The 28-year-old was sent off during a Super Rygbi Cymru match, the professional club league in Wales. Referee Craig Evans showed him a straight red card. That means the player leaves the field at once, without a yellow card first. A stamp is when a player brings a boot down on an opponent who is lying on the ground. Stamping is one of the most serious offences in the game, because the player on the ground cannot protect himself.

The incident was referred to the Welsh Rugby Union's disciplinary process. An independent panel first gave Gregory a 15-week ban. He appealed, and an appeal lets a player ask for a decision to be looked at again. That appeal succeeded, and the ban was cut to eight weeks.

The suspension also rules him out of two games for Crawshays XV, an invitational side put together for particular fixtures rather than a league. Those matches are against Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Gregory is available to play again from 20 December.

Locks are the tall forwards who work in the second row of the scrum and usually compete for the ball at the lineout, where the ball is thrown in from touch. Players in that position are often among the biggest bodies on the pitch, and their discipline matters as much as their power.

For Llandovery, the incident ended with their captain injured in a match they were playing in the Welsh league.

Gregory's ban is now set, and the date he can return is known. The case shows how the process works: a referee acts on the pitch, a disciplinary panel sets the length of the ban, and an appeal can change it.