VETERAN forward WP Nel is in danger of missing some of Edinburgh’s biggest games of the season after being accused of striking an opponent’s head during last week’s Challenge Cup win against Pau. The 35-year-old will face a disciplinary hearing today, and if found guilty could miss key clashes in both Europe and the United Rugby Championship.

Edinburgh head coach Mike Blair said last night that the 42nd-minute encounter between Nel and Teo Bordenave of the French club was dismissed at the time by Television Match Official Ben Whitehouse as “a rugby incident”. However, the citing commissioner, Dana Teagarden of Germany, decided there was a case to answer, meaning the case will be heard by the independent panel via video conference. Simon Thomas of Wales will chair the meeting and will be accompanied by Donal Courtney from Ireland and England’s Martyn Wood.

“I didn’t notice it at the time,” Blair said. “I know they’d had a look at it and Ben Whitehouse had passed it off as a rugby incident and we didn’t think anything more than that.

“We checked after the game about the health of the player and he seemed OK at the time. We’ll wait and see. We’re trying to work out the right path at the moment.”

Nel is alleged to have breached Law 9.12: “A player must not punch or strike with hand, arm, elbow or shoulder”. World Rugby’s sanctions for foul play under that law range from an entry point of two weeks for incidents decreed to be “low end”, through six weeks for mid-range, and then on to a top end of 10 to 52 weeks in the case of the most serious offences. 

Nel’s good disciplinary record should help ensure he is not too severely punished, while the fact that Whitehouse did not regard the incident as actionable could also be of assistance. However, players who admit their guilt tend to get their sentences reduced, and a decision on how to plead is thought to be one of the issues Edinburgh had yet to decide when Blair spoke.

Whatever the outcome of the hearing, the bottom line for the coach is that he would rather have Nel available for every game. The Scotland international turns 36 at the end of the month and is used more sparingly these days than he was when at his peak. But he is still an important member of the squad, as he showed by scoring one of his team’s eight tries in their win over Pau, and any absence would be a blow to Edinburgh as they approach their biggest games of the season. 

“Obviously we’ve got some important games coming up which we’d love WP to be available for,” Blair added. “It’s a complicated type of situation the way these things are decided. 

“This is a first for me and it’s an interesting process. Really difficult. We’re doing a lot of reviewing of the footage to see where we’re at and we’ll make a decision on it.”

After comfortably beating Pau 54-5 to finish on top of their Challenge Cup pool, Edinburgh are again at the DAM Health Stadium on Saturday night for a last-16 tie against Bath. If they beat the West Country club, they will be at home again in the quarter-finals against either Biarritz or Wasps. 

Bath are currently bottom of the English Premiership, but Blair insisted he would not read too much into that. “This will be one of our toughest games,” he added. “They’ve got quality across the pitch.

“They’ve improved massively over the last couple of months in terms of what they’ve been able to put out on the pitch, and results as well. I think they’ll make this competition a big target.”

While Edinburgh have continued to thrive in European competition, they are now down in seventh place in the URC after being top near the start of the year, and face some important league matches as they bid to stay in the top eight and thus qualify for the end-of-season play-offs. Their remaining three regular-season games are at home, against Zebre and Ulster later this month, and then against Glasgow Warriors on 21 May in a match which also doubles up as the second and final leg of this season’s 1872 Cup.