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Peato Mauvaka cops ban for headbutt on Scotland star
By Josh Raisey
France hooker Peato Mauvaka has been handed a three-week ban for his controversial headbutt on Scotland scrum-half Ben White’s in Les Bleus’ Guinness Six Nations-clinching victory on Saturday.
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The 28-year-old was shown a yellow card by referee Matthew Carley after 20 minutes at the Stade de France in the final match of the Championship, with the off-the-ball incident being referred to Ian Tempest in the bunker.
The infringement remained a yellow card, however, it’s a decision that has caused uproar in the wake of the result.
While 20-minute red cards were in force over the Six Nations for technical offences, this would have warranted a permanent red as it would have been deemed a deliberate and dangerous act of foul play, meaning France would have been down to 14 players for the majority of the match.
Speaking after his side’s defeat, Scotland captain Rory Darge said that he thought Mauvaka deserved a red card, saying: “I thought it should have been a red card. It looked like, to me, an intentional headbutt, but I’ve not watched it back, so I don’t know.”
The flanker did add that the decision was “definitely not the reason” the visitors lost the match.
Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend also questioned the decision, specifically how the decision was reached. “The decision not to raise it to a red card was because there was not excessive force,” he said.
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“I’m not sure that’s really the criteria for a non-tackle incident. It clearly was not a tackle, it was after the whistle, there was head contact, that was the intention, so it shouldn’t have anything to do with force.”
The hooker will Toulouse’s upcoming games against Bordeaux and Pau in the Top 14 and Sale Sharks in the Champions Cup.
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https://www.sixnationsrugby.com/en/discipline
The Press Release and Written Decision for the Mauvaka hearing have now been published. It looks like World Rugby are self sabotaging here, or have completely capitulated to France.
To decide the entry level ban the following criteria are assessed and ticked:
*Head Contact
*Reckless
*Intentional
*Player Injured
*Vulnerable Player
For the Press Release for Mauvaka only ‘Head Contact’ and ‘Intentional’ were ticked! Giving him a low level entry ban.
Here are quotes from the Written Decision directly contradicting the Press Release wrt to ‘Reckless'? and ‘Vulnerable Player’. It shows that four out of five criteria were met and Mauvaka’s entry level ban should be in mid to high range, not low.
*Reckless?
“The Committee found that the player had intentionally propelled himself towards S9. The committee did not find that the player had intentionally struck S9 with his head but rather that the player was reckless in that respect.”
*Vulnerable position?
“Vulnerability of victim – clause 2.5.89 (i) The player was on the ground and was in a vulnerable position.”
Have a read.
3 week ban?
Just so it isn’t lost: Ntamack deliberately shouldered Thomas in the face breaking his nose. The entry level for a deliberate OR injury causing citing is the higher level of 10 matches. Nyamacks claimed accidental that he was ‘protecting himself’ by following through with his shoulder on the vulnerable head of Thomas. But the WRU doctor (Davies) report was clear: a fully displaced nose break.
Ntamack apologized for the injury in the hearing. Amazingly Ntamack was adjudicated to have acted accidentally but also NOT TO HAVE injured Thomas, meaning a low level ban.
Even though it was crystal clear why club matches could not count for Ntamack (International the following week with all associated unknowns) the French, Galthie and Ntamack publicly screamed injustice when Ringrose ban (weekend before rest week) included club matches.
What was almost as bad was the rugby media accepting Galthie’s nonnense without even reading the written decision. Rugby pundits have a duty to their audience to cover the information needed to inform a position. It generally involves a few minutes of reading every 3-4 weeks.
Don’t blame Carley or the TMO, TMO kept telling Carley there was another angle to consider intimating that there was more to deliberate on but the FRENCH TV director WOULDN’T show it! THAT is why Carley didn’t go straight red. We’ve seen the French do the exact same thing during test matches, Boks Vs France in Marseilles in 2022 where Barnes wasn’t shown a double movement for a match winning try.
A contributing factor to all this was the poor camera angles of the incident presented by the TV producers. At any other major ground you would have had a better camera angle for the ref to make an informed decision on the field. It does seem to happen quite often at French grounds that the transgressions of French players are mysteriously not shown on the big screen by producers. For instance footage of a match-winning French try against the Boks in 2022 - a clear double movement - was not available for the ref to look at. Also a head-high hit on Evan Roos when the Stormers played Racing recently could not be shown to the TMO or referee for some reason. Yet when there is a transgression by an French opponent producers seem to find the footage very quickly and play it on a loop to rile the local crowd up.
Three-week ban is a joke
Its a shame the ref and the TMO can’t be cited for incompetence.
It goes back to Galthie’s nonsense. It created a chilling effect for officials associated with that match.
Very poor officiating. Seemed to do everything to avoid making the right, but brave, call. Rather simple really. Off the ball clear intent to injure, head appears to be targeted… pretty simple really.
Galthie’s behaviour in the last few weeks has had a chilling effect on the officials in Paris on Saturday. He was able to attack the citing commission, the officiating (no direct attack on individuals, he left that to FFR head). He attacked individual players who subsequently received threats of violence.
It started with his disinformation campaign about the Ntamack versus Ringrose ban. Media, rugby sites and pods have a lot of culpability for allowing Galthie’s BS to go a couple of times around the world before bothering to read the written decision. It shows why both cases were very different re club matches counting. It also shows that Monsieur Galthie KNEW this. Punditsmight have also noticed that up until then France had more citings under Galthie and favourable decisions under the commission than all other 6 Nations combined.
We can’t have a situation where Mini-trump coaches like Galthie can tie up and outrage the rugby world with clickbait outrage without the rugby world bothering to check if it has any substance. We saw the result on Saturday. If any nation should be complaining about injustice its Scotland NOT France.
If France do get eliminated in 2027 due to a debatable decision, Galthie should be advised to read a popular fable, before he goes Bertie: “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”.
There is credence to your waffle, once the mighty Boks ejected the French from their own World Cup poor Ben OKeefe had to publicly defend himself, why wasn’t World Rugby protecting OKeefe in the same way they protected Berry during his pathetic performance during the BIL test? How come Du Pondt got away with criticising OKeefe after the game?
France are regarded by World Rugby as one of their ‘premier’ teams. By ‘premier’, I of course mean one of their most significant sources of revenue. As such, they certainly will not struggle to receive preferential treatment.
They were gifted a victory last year against Scotland, despite the hosts scoring a late and perfectly legal try. That loss would have seen France’s 2024 table position plummet. I don’t recall Galthie making any statement in relation to that incident. Least of all one questioning the actions of the officials, which helped ensure his team avoided a justified loss.
Much the same as Galthie didn’t comment on Atonio avoiding a red card against Ireland for a horrible high shot - which despite seemingly passing without much coverage, Atonio actually repeated in this outing in Paris against Scotland (this time on Darge). Atonio only collected a Yellow Card for the first. He escaped without any punishment for his illegal shoulder to the head in Paris last weekend. Ghaltie once again curiously silent on those refereeing blunders.
While they have players who are very talented and who play good rugby, they’re also becoming an increasingly unlikeable group with a tendency towards cheap shots, refereeing complaints, and a desperate win at all costs approach that we’ve seen grow since even before Jelonch embarrased himself with his theatrics in Australia.
You had a look on France red cards stats, you should have a look on Ireland opponents serious injury too…
In a climate of increasing concern around long term brain injuries, professional rugby has (yet again) done itself few favours.
Having a team of five supposedly elite officials, who between them conspired to ensure almost the minimum possible punishment for a player guilty of an off the ball headbutt into a prone and vulnerable opponent, is not what any watching parent wishes to see.
To have that type of incident regarded as ‘low entry’, with no apparent - or at least publically facing reprimand for the officials who so badly let down a vulnerable player, frankly speaks volumes.
When the inevitable CTE related court adjudication comes - and it is a question of ‘when’, rather than ‘if’. The weak Governance we see reflected in moments like this will be pivotal in deciding whether the sport as a whole survives it.
The Officials were clearly intimidated by Galthie’s public threats and intimidation in the weeks leading up to the match. He didn’t directly criticise a referee, but the effect of his comments was a huge attack on officials at the Dublin match and citing commissioners cynically phrased to avoid Galthie landing in hot water. He attacked individual players himself (they are not protected) and the FFR head attacked the officials. The ref has a choice of doing the right thing and red carding the player and risking his own safety and that of his family. Or fudging it and kicking it out to the TMO. The TMO, like the ref, pretends its just a poor tackle and leaves it to the citing commission.
I mean, I don't think White is in any danger of CTE from that bump he received from Mauvaka. It was a very poor decision though, doesn't matter the level of danger, a deliberate headbutt is a red card. They said it wasn't a high degree of danger yet if it was a punch the degree of danger wouldn't have come into it. Degree of danger should only be relevent to rugby incidents, not deliberate acts of assault - even if it was a halfhearted attempt to hurt him.
I think you should not be too concern for White health. He will be on the bench for Toulon Perpignan saturday. If he got an injury, it's probably to his self-esteem…