Delon Armitage handed eight-week ban for pushing anti-doping official

Armitage, 27, was charged with "conduct prejudicial to the interests of the game" after using threatening and/or abusive and obscene language and pushing the officer from UK Anti-Doping following his club London Irish's defeat by Bath on 1 January.

A Rugby Football Union (RFU) disciplinary committee, chaired by the RFU's disciplinary officer Judge Jeff Blackett, sat yesterday in London and found him guilty and suspended him from all rugby until 16 March, the RFU confirmed in a statement.

The ban rules him out of England's first four matches, beginning away to Wales on 4 February, and effectively means he has no chance of playing in the fifth and final match away to Ireland on 19 March, three days after his ban ends, having not played any rugby for two months.

Judge Blackett said: "His behaviour was completely unacceptable. It brought discredit on himself and his club and failed to uphold one of the core values of the game - respect.

"Doping control officers should expect to carry out their important work without fear of abuse and be treated with respect at all times.

"We took into account that it was not a violent push but more of a brush past and that was accepted by the doping control officer. We took the offences as a whole and, in line with the sanctions for abuse of match officials, we decided that a low end entry point of 12 weeks was appropriate.

"This was reduced to eight weeks on account of his remorse, his letter of apology to the doping control officer and his relatively good record."

Armitage has 19 caps and five tries after making his debut in November 2008 despite not being in the official England squad at the start of that season.

He has recently lost his England starting berth at full-back to Ben Foden but his ability to play on the wing and even at centre has made him an ideal man for the replacement's bench, where he featured three times during the last round of November internationals.