I see that Bristol have appealed Piutau's suspension. To be heard on Thursday. Having watched the incident, which Piutau seemed to incite and provoke to keep it going, I can't see how they are going to win that. His behaviour was far from gentlemanly, and a long way from being the innocent party Pat Lam tried to make out that he was.
Can the panel extend the ban in the appeal process?
I think they can and might. Piutau pleaded guilty and under the framework the best he could have hoped for was that the panel accepted his self defence claim and didn't ban him, or 3 weeks.
They didn't accept the self defence arguement, stating the the Findings of Fact section in the Judgement:
Whilst the Player referred to his actions as being in self-defence, the delay
between W19's attempted punch and his response was sufficiently long for the Panel to conclude
that the punch was more a reaction and response to W19's attempted punch than it was genuine
self-defence. Whilst the Panel do not doubt that the Player has concerns about being hit in the
head (as many if not all rugby players almost certainly do), the Panel did not consider that this
was the dominant reason behind his decision to punch W19.
I get the impression they feel he shouldn't have been banned for the same duration as Kitchener, and I am inclined to agree on the basis that Kitchener threw more punches and swore at the ref after.
I disagree with their version of events. To me, Piutau goaded Ted Hill whilst gripping his shirt and he also grabbed hold of Kitchener's shirt before Kitchener swung a punch that missed. A Bristol player restrained Kitchener and Piutau took that opportunity to punch Kitchener in the head, which lead to Kitchener punching him back several times. If Piutau hadn't goaded Hill none of this would have happened.
The panel may take the view that Piutau did use self defence, but I'd be surprised if they did. They could equally argue that he doesn't accept he is guilty and only entered a guilty plea as part of his self defence claim. If they decide that they could take the approach he doesn't deserve his credit for a guilty plea and increase the ban to 6 matches.