U20 England Rugby Player Sent Off For ‘Disgraceful Headbutt’ At World Championships, Faces Calls For Lifetime Ban

ByMF Jones

England Under-20 flanker Seb Kelly faces calls for a lifetime ban after unleashing a shocking headbutt at the World Rugby U20 Championship semi-final against South Africa.

England already had a 17-7 lead when Kelly completed a perfectly legal tackle on South African fullback Luan Giliomee.

For some reason, he then headbutted him on the floor:

Absolute scumbag move. And after the ref had blown the whistle too?

The ref actually initially issued a yellow card, but it was quickly upgraded to a permanent red card via the bunker review system. Left with 14 men for the remaining 47 minutes, England collapsed, giving up 28 unanswered points to ultimately lose the semi-final match 53-37. You idiot, Kelly. You damn idiot!

Rugby analytics outlets RugbyPass awarded Kelly a dismal 2.5/10 rating for the game, citing the moment as pure “brainrot” that directly cost England a spot in the World Cup final.

Kelly is now awaiting an official World Rugby disciplinary hearing, where he faces the prospect of a lengthy multi-month suspension from both international and domestic club rugby.

Red card in a semi, costing your team the championship, and a 4-6 game ban is probably enough punishment to be fair. I don’t know if Kelly has a reputation for this sort of thing but if it’s the first time, then we can put it down to a heat of the moment headloss, and allow the lad to keep playing. Hopefully he’s learned his lesson already.

For the rugby player banned for 8 games after sticking his finger up his opponent’s bum, click HERE. Can’t be doing that.

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