England and Lions prop Kyle Sinckler won't sleep easy this weekend after footage emerged of the forward appearing to gouge his opponent in Harlequins loss to Northampton Saints in the Aviva Premiership this afternoon.
George North, Tom Collins, and Mickey Haywood tries helped Northampton to a 19-15 lead at halftime, and Ahsee Tuala secured the bonus point for Saints before David Ward grabbed a consolation try for the opposition.
The defeat for Harlequins is likely to be overshadowed by an incident which occurred in the 49th minute where Sinckler was accused of eye-gouging his opponent Michael Patterson.
Although evidence from the television match official appeared to be inconclusive, a penalty was awarded to Saints' as the prop did remove the Patterson's scrum cap during the incident.
The minimum ban a player will receive if found guilty of gouging is 12 weeks, while the maximum offence is a three year ban.
Sinckler became somewhat of a British & Irish Lions fan-favourite for his performances in the drawn series with New Zealand, and the prop won the crucial penalty that allowed Owen Farrell to kick the winning score when the Lions defeated the All Blacks in the second test in Wellington.
Although the TMO decided that replays were inconclusive, the footage does not look good for the English forward.
