“Leinster Rugby are surprised and extremely disappointed with today’s ruling even though there was clear evidence from the opposition player that the act was not intentional.

“The ERC Disciplinary Committee appears to have found that Shane Jennings was careless with his actions, which is a shock to us. Shane has an impeccable record and a strong leadership role within the squad as our vice captain and we will be appealing this decision.

“Leinster Rugby will not be commenting further until after the written report which will ‘be issued as soon as is reasonably practicable’ according to the ERC rules.”