Pascal Pape handed 10-week ban for kneeing Jamie Heaslip

French lock Pascal Pape has been handed a 10-week ban for kneeing Ireland's Jamie Heaslip in the back during the Six Nations match at the Aviva Stadium.

It could have ben worse for the Stade Francais player, with the initial 15-week ban reduced by a third on account of the player’s remorse and subsequent apology to the Leinster number eight on Twitter.

The ban ends his Six Nations campaign but the player has the right of appeal.

Pape received a yellow card from referee Wayne Barnes for the knee to Heaslip’s lower back in the 52nd minute of the game.

Heaslip continued to the hour mark before being replaced and a scan revealed that the player suffered three broken vertebrae. He will definitely miss Ireland’s key Six Nations clash with England at the Aviva Stadium on March 1st, with no date yet set for his return.

After hearing from Pape and his representatives and viewing various TV angles of the incident, the disciplinary committee determined that it should have been a red card offence.

They categorised the offence at the top end of World Rugby’s scale of seriousness but “noted further the absence of aggravating factors and the existence of certain mitigating factors, including the player’s admission of foul play and his expressions of remorse for what had occurred and the injury sustained by his opponent, in applying a five week (33 per cent) reduction from the entry point.”

A 15-week ban would have ended Pape’s season but the 34-year-old will now be available for the final three weekends of Top 14 regular season games for a Stade side presently sharing top spot with Toulon and Clermont.

The first game he would be eligible for is the Paris derby meeting with Johnny Sexton’s Racing Metro on Saturday May 9th.