The Welsh forward was shown a yellow card for the offence at the timeGloucester’s Deian Gwynne celebrates after the game (Photo: INPHO/Tom Maher/EPCR)

George Skivington says combative young flanker Deian Gwynne ‘has not got a malicious bone in his body’ after he was cited for making contact with the eye, or eye area, of a Castres Olympique player in Sunday’s 34-14 Champions Cup win.

Welshman Gwynne, who is still just 19 and was making his Champions Cup debut, is alleged to have made contact with the eye or eye area of the second row Florent Vanverberghe in the 48th minute of the match at Kingsholm, in contravention of Law 9.12.

READ MORE: Gloucester Rugby player ratings from Castres Olympique win – ‘Scored with swagger’

Gwynne was shown a yellow card by the referee, Sam Grove-White (Scotland), for the incident as the TMO replays at the time clearly showed he made contact around Vanverberghe’s ‘eye area’ but the officials on the day judged the incident at the ruck to be accidental. However, ‘reckless contact with the eyes’ is still an offence in rugby and citing commissioner Stuart Morgan-Scott (Wales) has called the Cherry and Whites flanker up before an independent disciplinary hearing which will take place tonight (Tuesday).

Under World Rugby’s Sanctions for Foul Play, for Law 9.12 , a low-end offence – which this almost certainly is – sees a ban start at six weeks, which in reality will likely be reduced to three for a guilty plea and good record. The offence carries a mid-range ban of 12 weeks and top-end ban of 18 to 208 weeks

Speaking after the match, Gloucester director of rugby Skivington gave a full-throated defence of his player. He said: “I think it is completely accidental. There is no chance he has done that deliberately. I couldn’t hear the ref’s comms, but I don’t think anyone thinks he has done that deliberately. He is just trying to get him out of the way, and his hand goes there. If you play it at full speed it is a nothing incident. He has not got a malicious bone in his body, I can assure you. It is just unfortunate, these things happen and he got punished for it.”

Marcello d’Orey (Portugal, Chair), Ken Owens (Wales), and Val Toma (Romania) have been appointed as the independent Disciplinary Committee for the hearing, which will take place by video conference on Tuesday, 9 December.

Skivington could do without losing Gwynne to a ban in the second game of this block of nine weekends of back-to-back European or Gallagher PREM matches, especially having seen Max Llewellyn, Will Joseph and Ben Redshaw all limp off the field on Sunday.

This weekend the Cherry and Whites head to Munster.