Australian coach voices support for banned Grimes

Scotland welcomed the support of Australia's coach Eddie Jones yesterday as they wait to hear whether Stuart Grimes' appeal against a two-match suspension can be heard ahead of Saturday's second Test between the two countries.

Scotland welcomed the support of Australia's coach Eddie Jones yesterday as they wait to hear whether Stuart Grimes' appeal against a two-match suspension can be heard ahead of Saturday's second Test between the two countries.

Grimes was suspended by an International Rugby Board judiciary panel on Monday for allegedly "trampling" on the Wallabies No 8 David Lyons in the closing minutes of Scotland's 35-15 defeat in Melbourne last weekend.

While Jones described Grimes' actions as "foolish", he felt that the suspension was harsh and urged the IRB's citing commissioners to stop over-ruling match officials. The referee, Paul Honiss, issued a warning to Grimes at the time, but did not feel the incident warranted a penalty and later reported to the panel his belief that there had been no malice intended.

But Grimes was cited after the game and subsequently banned from all rugby until the morning of 14 August, which takes in Saturday's first Test and a Newcastle pre-season friendly.

Jones said: "In Test matches we have top referees in a game. If they deal with something the way Paul Honiss did, that should be the end of the matter. Judiciaries to me are for matters that aren't seen by the referees or the officials on the field and it was dealt with by Paul.

"At the end of the day, no one was injured, no one was hurt. It should be the end of the matter. I don't agree with the judiciary coming over the top of the referee."

Lyons, who was facing the turf and appeared to be held down over the ball by team-mate Phil Waugh at the time Grimes was above him, said yesterday that he could not comment on the matter.