A HOT rugby league prospect's career is in ruins after he was jailed for breaking a student's cheekbone in a Tunbridge Wells nightclub.

Carpenter Anthony Tognola, 20, of First Avenue in Kingston-upon-Hull, who has played for West Hull, Hull Kingston Rovers and the Great Britain Young Lions team, was sentenced to 12 months behind bars in a young offenders' institution following the attack on former Skinners' schoolboy Michael Mumford.

The sentence will cost him a place in the Young Lions squad for a tour of the Czech Republic this summer.

Defending Tognola, Tania Panagiotopoulou had told Maidstone Crown Court that rugby "was his life", and that a prison sentence would almost certainly put an end to his playing career.

However, Judge Philip Statman told Tognola, who has a history of drunk and violent behaviour: "It seems clear to me that your behaviour deteriorates when you are in drink. Whether that is because the rugby season has come to a conclusion and you are out celebrating matters or not, you cannot behave violently in public."

Tognola admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm on Mr Mumford in the Long Bar, Newton Road, last September. Tognola was out with friends while visiting his father in Tunbridge Wells.

The court was told that, just after 1am, trouble flared between this group, and friends of Mr Mumford who were celebrating before they started university.

Prosecutor Jo Cope said Mr Mumford was acting as a peacemaker. She added: "The defendant came up and punched him three times in the face so quickly that Mr Mumford did not see him coming or have any time to defend himself."

Tognola was escorted out of the club, and was seen on CCTV "clearly drunk and examining his knuckles", Mrs Cope said.

Mr Mumford's cheekbone had to be repaired with two metal plates and he missed the start of his university term.

Tognola, who described the incident as a "stupid, drunken brawl", had a previous conviction for causing actual bodily harm when he was 15 and was twice cautioned in 2009 for being drunk and disorderly and for threatening behaviour.