O'Driscoll citing hearing set for Tuesday

Brian O'Driscoll will face a citing hearing in London on Tuesday for stamping on Simone Favaro in Ireland's 22-15 Six Nations defeat by Italy, tournament organisers have announced. The 34-year-old centre -- who is widely expected to have played his last game for Ireland before he eventually retires -- was sin-binned for the incident by referee Wayne Barnes. However, on further viewing, citing commissioner Aurwel Morgan decided he should face a disciplinary hearing. Former Ireland captain O'Driscoll brought his right leg down on to the chest of flanker Simone Favaro at Rome's Olympic Stadium on Saturday -- a sign of the visitors' frustration as they suffered their first Six Nations loss to Italy. O'Driscoll's sin-binning was only the second of a 14-year career, including 125 caps for Ireland, which should stand in his favour when he appears before the hearing. Nevertheless, O'Driscoll-- who is expected to be selected for his fourth British and Irish Lions tour when coach Warren Gatland announces his squad next month for the series in Australia -- was fortunate to escape with a yellow card as stamping is normally regarded as a sending-off offence. The recommended suspension for a low-end stamping offence is two weeks, with the mid-range five weeks and top-end nine weeks, up to a maximum of one year. Now Leinster will hope the result of Tuesday's hearing leaves O'Driscoll free to play for the Irish province in their European Challenge Cup quarter-final with England's Wasps on April and for as much of the remainder of their Celtic League campaign as possible. From: AFP