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Shock as Castres hooker gets away with lenient ban for heinous clear-out

(Photo by Matthew Lewis/Getty Images)

Castres hooker Marc-Antoine Rallier can consider himself a very lucky player after only coming away with a three-week ban for a heinous clear-out on Racing 92’s Antonie Claassen. 

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In the most recent round of Top 14 action, the 31-year-old saw red for a hit that was simply despicable in the modern game and No8 Claassen was fortunate he did not suffer a serious injury. 

The disciplinary commission handed Rallier the ban on Wednesday, which is extraordinarily short given how reckless the collision was. 

Not only was this a shoulder charge, as the hooker clearly made no attempt to wrap his arms, but it was to the back of his opponent’s head and neck. Claassen had no opportunity to brace himself after making the tackle, as he was blindsided by Rallier. 

This was the offence, as shared by Tom May on Twitter: 

https://twitter.com/TreftonTrefton/status/1225549231248826368

While there have been complaints in recent times about how frivolously referees hand out cards, this was inexcusable and a three-week suspension is very lenient from the Ligue Nationale de Rugby. 

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The point of banning a player is partly to punish them, but also to serve as a deterrent to other players doing the same in future. 

A three-week ban does not correlate to how dangerous Rallier’s challenge was. French rugby, who this week handed centre Geoffrey Doumayrou a five-week suspended ban and a €1,000 fine feigning injury, must surely have to look into making bans for tackles like Rallier’s more severe in future. 

WATCH: Nick Tompkins can’t wait to start for Wales against Ireland

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N
NB 37 minutes ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Nice bit if revisioniusm but that's all it is JW.


For your further education, I found the following breakdown of one prominent club's finances in the Top 14 [Clermont].


For Clermont (budget of €29.5 million for 2021-2022) :

- 20% from ticket sales

- 17% from the LNR (includes TV Rights, compensation from producing french internationals and other minor stuff)

- 5% from public collectivities (so you're looking at funds from the city of Clermont, the department of Puy-De-Dôme and the region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes)

- 4% from merchandising and events

- 3% from miscellaneous

- 51 % from sponsorships and partnerships. They've got 550 different partners. The main ones are CGI, Groupama, Limagrain/Jacquet, Omerin, Paprec, Renault and of course Michelin (not surprising since they're actually the founders of the club).


As you can see nothing comes from the FFR at all. The LNR is a separate entitiy to FFR and their aims frequently do not accord.


It is also why the European breakaway plotted by LNR and PR back in 2013 had nothing to do with the governing bodies of either England or France - and it most certainly did not have their blessing https://www.espn.co.uk/rugby/story/_/id/15331030/jean-pierre-lux-anglo-french-cup-detrimental-european-rugby


And from the horse's mouth [ex AB skipper Sean Fitapatrick] about the comp between Top 14 and Super Rugby:


"The Top 14 in France is probably the best rugby competition in the world at the moment, purely for the week-in, week-out.”


“I think the quality of players. They are bigger, they are faster, they are stronger. Which then carries on into the international game.”

Take it from someone who knows JW😅

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