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Pountney handed ban and fine

Northampton coach Budge Pountney has been fined £2,000 and banned from match-day coaching for six weeks for calling a referee "a disgrace".

Pountney was found guilty of bringing the game into disrepute at a Rugby Football Union disciplinary hearing in London on Thursday night. Pountney criticised referee Steve Lander's performance in Northampton's defeat by Saracens on 5 February. The last two weeks of the six-week ban are suspended. Pountney pleaded guilty to the offence before a panel consisting of chairman Robert Horner, Nigel Gillingham and Jeff Probyn. The ban means former Scotland international Pountney cannot enter the playing enclosure, technical areas or go near the touchline, tunnel or players and officials' areas on the day of a game.