Harlequin centre Andre Esterhuizen banned for six weeks for striking with elbow

Andre Esterhuizen on the charge
Getty Images for Harlequins
Will Macpherson28 April 2021

Harlequins will be without Springbok centre Andre Esterhuizen for the remainder of the regular Premiership season and a possible play-off after he was banned for six weeks for striking with the elbow in the win over London Irish at the weekend. 

Esterhuizen will miss Harlequins’ last five matches in the league stage of the season as they chase a play-off berth having received his second red card of the season. 

Quins sit fourth, four points ahead of Northampton, and on course for a shot at the title. If they were to make a semi-final, Esterhuizen would remain banned. 

A three-strong disciplinary panel made up of Jeremy Summers (chair), Rob Vickerman and Becky Essex decided referee Matthew Carley had made the correct decision when sending him off in the second half for elbowing Irish centre Curtis Rona in a melee involving other players. 

Esterhuizen said it was not intentional, and has the right to appeal.

He will be missed by Quins as his powerful style has been a valuable midfield asset outside Marcus Smith and alongside Joe Marchant. On that runs of games, Quins face rivals for a play-off spot Sale Sharks.

Bath and England prop Beno Obano was banned for five matches, including their Challenge Cup semi-final against Montpellier this weekend, for a dangerous tackle against Wasps. 

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in