Any red card or citing will be reviewed by an independent panel and they will decide the punishment – if any – that will be handed down in line with the current World Rugby laws that are in place.
There is a low-end, mid-range or top-end sanction which will go a long way to determining the initial suspension.
However, after that has been decided, mitigation will almost always be applied for admission of guilt, good conduct and a clean disciplinary record.
There is also a World Rugby Coaching Intervention Programme for certain offences which, if completed, will then reduce it by another week.
That means a six-week suspension can become two, something which Owens believes needs to be looked at going forward.
“If someone makes an illegal, dangerous or reckless tackle in a game and they later admit guilt, they have a week or two knocked off their ban. If they then agree to attend tackle school, that’s another week off. It’s nonsense,” he wrote in his WalesOnline column.
“If you know that the offence is worth a six week or 12 week suspension, then I’m sorry, but that’s exactly what the player in question should be getting.
“If they want to change player behaviour, then do that – because knocking off weeks as they currently do doesn’t help the game one bit.”