Edinburgh head coach Richard Cockerill believes there was no malice in the challenge, but has fully accepted that prop Pierre Schoeman deserved the red card that could see him serve a lengthy ban.

The South African has already undergone a six-week suspension this year for biting an opponent, after he had signed for Edinburgh but while still playing for the Blue Bulls in Southern Hemisphere Super Rugby, which means he cannot expect anything in the way of mitigation of sentencing in terms of past good behaviour.

However, Cockerill also reckoned that in this instance the disciplinary panel which will hear Schoeman’s case tomorrow, will be judging him on whether his behaviour was careless or reckless, rather than anything worse, after his elbow connected with Dan Leavy’s head, leaving the Leinster flanker dazed.

“In the way it is looked at now I think it is a red card,” he said, uncategorically.

“He has made contact with the guy’s neck to chin area and he has had to leave the field. I don’t think it is intentional he genuinely gone to defend the player. It is a difficult one. It is something that the law makers will have to look at because the tackling player is stood upright he is tackling with his chest and made that part a target to defend. We have been sent the videos. We know if you make contact with that part of the body then there will be a sanction. It is a fair enough card. He is a bit unlucky, I don’t think there is any malice in it. I just think he has caught him and unfortunately rules are rules.”

Changes to the way the sport is being refereed have been long overdue in seeking to address the epidemic of head injuries that has made the professional game such a dangerous arena and has increasingly reduced the sport’s attractiveness as a whole to the parents of budding youngsters.

Experimentation into forcing players to tackle lower is one part of that equation, but that can only work if those carrying the ball are also made to be more courageous in the way they enter contact. That means allowing the use of the traditional hand-off, without permitting ball carriers to lead with forearms and elbows as too many have been doing but, aware that it will be his job to drill players into changing their instincts, Cockerill knows that is likely to be a difficult process, suggesting that the timing of the contact also played a part in the incident which saw Schoeman dismissed.

“When you watch it and watch it again, it is easy in hindsight but when defences are racing at you, you get the ball and you look to carry, everything happens so quickly,” he said.

“Sometimes you try and protect yourself from being hit and it happens so quickly it is not a conscious thing. When he does put his forearm out to stop him he does follow with his arm to get his arm straight.”