Munster hooker Frankie Sheahan is poised to be included in Ireland's 30-man squad for the World Cup when it is announced on Sunday after the ERC yesterday confirmed that an independent tribunal had reduced the two-year suspension imposed by a Judicial Tribunal in July to three months.

As this is backdated to the original suspension from May 30th, the 26-year-old is free to play for Munster against Leinster in the opening round of Celtic League matches on Friday at Donnybrook.

The Appeal Committee also imposed a fine of €5,000 against Sheahan, although in its summation the tribunal expressed the hope that Munster would discharge the fine on his behalf, as ERC rules (to be changed next season) prevent them from imposing fines on clubs or provinces directly for incorrectly completed medical forms.

The tribunal's findings highlighted the need for rigour in the completion of forms about drugs and other medications being taken by players, and an IRFU statement last night noted the lessons to be learned for both players and administrators.

On July 11th, an independent judicial tribunal, appointed by the ERC, had found Sheahan guilty of a doping offence under ERC regulations. Sheahan inhales Ventolin (which contains salbutamol) for his asthma, but the original tribunal did not accept that the player administered only eight puffs when he tested positive for salbutamol after Munster's European Cup semi-final away to Toulouse on April 26th.

However, after reading submissions and then sitting through a seven-hour hearing in the ERC's council chamber on Monday evening in Dublin's Huguenot House, the Appeal Committee - Jeff Blackett (RFU, chairman), Dr Roger Evans (WRU) and Jeff Probyn (RFU) - accepted medical evidence brought by Sheahan's legal team that the extreme dehydration suffered by the player in the European Cup semi-final in Toulouse explained the discrepancies in his samples taken after that game.

Flanked by his lawyer Paul Derham and his father Frank Snr at a press conference in Dublin's Green Isle Hotel, Sheahan said: "Obviously, I'm absolutely thrilled that this has been overturned. It's been an absolutely torrid time for myself and my family, and it's fantastic to be back."

Derham, a former Cork Constitution player and coach, agreed this had been a benchmark case for both rugby and international sportspeople. "It has confirmed that in the case of salbutamol the level was only a trigger point rather than a cut-off point and it could have fairly wide repercussions for the manner in which urine samples are taken from athletes in which dehydration may be a factor."

The key contributor to the medical evidence backing Sheahan's appeal was Henry Chrystyn, a professor of Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Bradford. Sheahan's maternal aunt from Louth, Bríd, was responsible for Chrystyn's intervention, and his presentation of research done in his own laboratory in 1991 about the effects of dehydration on salbutamol levels.

"This is the end of the road in relation to the charge which was brought by the ERC against Frankie Sheahan," admitted Derham. "This goes no further. I think the result that we have got is the best that we could have hoped for in the circumstances," he added, while acknowledging that Sheahan had not completed a consent form stating his medical need for salbutamol and therefore had technically committed a doping offence.

"He has been exonerated from the most serious charge, in that the levels of salbutamol in his urine were in themselves a doping offence. That finding has been overturned and that is the important issue," said Derham

More contentiously, even though Sheahan's legal team sought payment of his estimated €100,000 costs on the grounds that he had persuaded the independent appeal tribunal of his case on appeal, the tribunal ruled the ERC and Sheahan would each pay their own costs, partly on the basis that the expert medical evidence put to them had not been put forward to the judicial tribunal.

Derham conceded yesterday that such a ruling "was as good as we could hope for."

Asked if the judicial tribunal which initially imposed the two-year ban had given Sheahan a fair hearing he replied emphatically: "no." When asked why, he said: "the tribunal focused on the issue of levels which in our opinion was not appropriate to the regulations which were in place at that time.

"We asked them to make a ruling on the first occasion with regard to levels; they didn't make that ruling. As a result it certainly jeopardised our ability to defend the case."

In particular, there is ill-feeling within Sheahan's camp that the original tribunal did not fully avail of evidence available from Prof Kenneth Duncan Fitch, the ERC's own medical advisor, after recommendation by the IOC.

According to Derham, Fitch contended the IOC-stipulated levels for salbutamol were not relevant given his tests proved the drug had been inhaled.

IRUPA chief executive Niall Woods, who called for the IRB to introduce a system of one form per player to cover all competitions when revealing Sheahan had filled in "five or six forms" last season alone, added: "Frankie Sheahan has had to endure three months of living hell. A situation like this should never be allowed to occur again."