Nine-match ban for Jamie Acton after manhandling Greg Bird
It’s the forward’s fifth offence this season, but he could return for the final game in the Qualifiers.
Leigh forward Jamie Acton has been handed a nine-match ban by the Rugby Football League.
The 25-year-old former Wigan academy prop was given the hefty punishment, which effectively ends his season, for man-handling an injured Greg Bird during the Centurions’ Super League defeat by Catalans Dragons in Perpignan on July 1.
Acton, who was seen by television viewers picking up a prone Bird one-handed before dumping him back to the ground, was charged by the RFL’s match-review panel with a grade F offence of “other contrary behaviour” which normally carries a suspension of eight matches or more.
The case was twice postponed at the request of his club, who say they needed more time to prepare his defence, and he admitted the charge when he appeared in front of an independent disciplinary tribunal in Leeds on Tuesday evening, although he contested the grading.
The tribunal felt the grading was correct and imposed a nine-game ban and a £300 fine.
Acton has already missed two matches after his club agreed not to select him while he was waiting for his hearing and so has seven games left to serve.
Leigh play their final game of the regular season at Salford on Friday before embarking on the Super 8s Qualifiers.
Acton, who has been charged with five offences so far this season, will technically be free to play in the last of the seven fixtures in the Qualifiers plus the Million-Pound Game if the Centurions finish in the bottom two.
