An appeal has been lodged against the original judicial finding handed down to Wallabies flanker Michael Hooper.

On Thursday, Hooper was found guilty of foul play after striking Argentina flyhalf Nicolás Sanchez during last weekend’s Rugby Championship match in Mendoza, and was suspended for a week.

However, with no Rugby Championship matches taking place this weekend, Hooper was only set to miss a club game. The lenient sentence was met with widespread criticism, and will now be reviewed again.

A Sanzar appeals committee, chaired by Jannie Lubbe, with Terry Willis and Mike Heron as members, will hear the appeal via video conference on Sunday.

Under the Sanzar rules, all formal judicial hearings are reviewed by an independent appeals review officer, and in this case Graeme Mew of Canada examined Nigel Hampton's original finding and referred it to the appeals committee.

In response, the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) said they were extremely disappointed after receiving Sanzar’s notice to appeal the sanction. The statement said that the ARU intended to ‘cross-appeal the judicial officer's original finding that the player was guilty of committing an act of foul play’.

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