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France's Peato Mauvaka cited for yellow-carded Ben White incident
By Liam Heagney
The 2025 Guinness Six Nations isn’t over for Peato Mauvaka as the France hooker has been summoned to attend a disciplinary hearing this Thursday following his yellow-carded incident with Scotland’s Ben White.
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There were 20 minutes played at the Stade de France last Saturday night when the French front-rower was sin-binned for foul play against the Scottish scrum-half. The incident sparked much debate, with plenty of fans feeling that Mauvaka should have been red-carded for leading with his head in the off the ball collision.
A Six Nations statement read: “France No2 Peato Mauvaka will attend an independent disciplinary hearing after he was cited for an act of foul play contrary to law 9.12 (A player must not…. strike with any part of the arm, shoulder, head or knee(s)) in the Guinness Six Nations match between France and Scotland on Saturday, March 15.
“The player will attend the hearing via video conference before an independent disciplinary committee consisting of Jennifer Donovan (chair, Ireland), with the other two disciplinary committee members to be confirmed in due course. The hearing will take place on Thursday, March 20, at 10am (GMT).”
France went on to win last Saturday’s round five match 35-16 to clinch the 2025 championship title. They finished one point ahead of England on the table and two clear of Ireland, the 2023 and 2024 back-to-back champions.
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Really don’t know how the officials messed this one up on the day. Surely, the force of the impact should not matter when it’s an intentional head butt. Straight red all day long.
Intentional violent conduct after play had stopped. Tackle protocols don’t come into it. Straight red no question, apart from how did Tempest & Carley get it so wrong?
Clearly Galthies public disinformation, intimidation and threats to officials and players had a chilling effect on the officiating for this violent hit. Glad to see he is getting cited.
“Player Welfare Hero” Galthie’s silence is no surprise obviously.
Decisions like that genuinely undermine the sporting integrity of the competition. Freeman’s try being ‘grounded’ is another example that leaves you wondering how the referees reach their decisions in contradiction to what everyone else is seeing. Must do better with the tmo set up.
100%
Intentional
After the whistle
Dirty
Dangerous
Checks all the criteria for a red card and a lengthy ban. Compare this to other incidents where there are accidental tackles to the head and it’s a complete and utter farce.
Rugby officials need a hard look at themselves and be more consistent. Otherwise we’ll have more and more important games ruined by bad refereeing decisions, e.g. tournament finals or series deciders.
No word from “Welding Glasses” Galthie yet!?
He reeks of self pity and is a walking contradiction. He’d be better off keeping his mouth shut last week as his silence this week in the Mauvaka incident is deafening.
Mauvaka cited but not the Irish players? Lol
The Irish players did nothing wrong. Mauvaka attempted a head butt. The citing process occurs via the citing commission. Not via the whims of disinformation merchants like Galthie. He already publicly lied about the Ntamack/Ringrose cases. He has no credibility.
Are you trying to compare an accidental unfortunate clear out to an intentional diving headbutt???
Exactly
Better late than never, but I could not understand a nonn rugby incident while play was stopped being judged as if it was a tackle during the match. France probably still winning if he was sent off. But ………….
Galthie’s public disinformation and threats had a chilling effect on the officiating in Paris. That’s all I can think of.