By Duncan Wood
May 14 2002

Two Bristol players were in front of an RFU tribunal at Twickenham today. Julian White gets a 21 day ban for his red card against Leicester. Felipe Contepomi's citing in the same match is rejected. Bristol's next opponent? Leicester!

It's mixed news really. The worst case scenario was that both players would be banned. So, we should be grateful that the citing against Felipe was dismissed. However, the banning of White is still a blow.

Leicester had taken the moral high ground by banning Adam Balding (who was involved in the punch up with Julian White) for 14 days last week. Easy enough to do when you can still pick a back row from the likes of Back, Kronfeld, Moody, Corry and Johnson!

White had pretty much admitted that he was to blame. He reacted to Balding's presence and the fight ensued. The 21 day ban is not altogether unexpected but his absence is a big blow to Bristol especially as Paul Johnstone is missing through injury.

Who will pack down alongside Neil McCarthy on Saturday? Darren Crompton is an obvious choice and then it's really between Emiliano Bergamaschi and Tim Payne with U21 skipper Richard Skuse an outside bet.

However, at least Contepomi will be available. The Puma international has proved himself to be a man for the big occasion time and time again not least on Sunday when he notched a penalty from the halfway line on 81 minutes to win the game for Bristol.

Had he been banned, Bristol would have been in strife at outside half with Shane Drahm already missing with a knee injury although Matt Carrington did deputise impressively at Vicarage Road.

The reason for his citing was never made entirely clear although it definitely wasn't Leicester who reported him. The independent citing officer was the man to take action and it is believed that stamping was the cause for concern.

However, the main thing is that the tribunal is out of the way, Bristol now know where they stand and they can focus on Saturday's playoff.