"It was decided that the offending was at the mid-range of World Rugby's sanctions and 12 weeks was selected as the appropriate entry point."

The independent disciplinary committee took into account "the player's timely acceptance that he had committed an act of foul play that would have warranted a red card, his expression of remorse, clean disciplinary record and good conduct and full participation in the disciplinary hearing".

It therefore "decided to reduce the sanction by the maximum of 50% before imposing a six-week suspension".

The incident with Cole took place in the second minute at Scotstoun and, afterwards, Glasgow attack coach Nigel Carolan called Venter "a gentleman", insisting "whatever happened was an accident".

On the prospect of losing a key player for such an important game in Dublin, Carolan added: "It would be unfortunate because he's such a good-natured person.

"It's not in his intention to hurt anyone or to cause harm, especially with all the cameras that are around. It's kind of silly, but it was just unfortunate and something that we'll just have to deal with."

Venter will join French club Brive at the end of the season.