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Video: Bastareaud could face serious ban after attack on Castres lock

France and Toulon centre Mathieu Bastareaud (Photo by Anthony Au-Yeung/Getty Images)

France international centre Mathieu Bastareaud could face a lengthy ban for a vicious attack on Castres lock Christophe Samson during their Top 14 match on Sunday.

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The Toulon man hit Samson across the head with his forearm, earning him a straight red card in the process.

It happened in the 69th minute with Samson lying on the ground. One commentator described it as “bordering on assualt”.

Samson was not completely blameless, hitting Bastareaud from an offside position at a ruck and received a yellow card as a result. But it is the retribution by the Toulon captain that is set to land him in hot water with the authorities.

Despite being a man down Toulon managed to defeat the current champions 28-27.

It’s not the first time that Bastareaud has been in trouble with the authorities, most recently in January when he picked up a three week ban for using a homophobic slur during a Champions Cup match against Benetton Rugby at Stade Félix Mayol.

He missed France’s opening game of the 2018 Natwest Six Nations against Ireland as a result.

Bastareaud was cited by the match Citing Commissioner, Dennis Jones for verbally abusing the Benetton Rugby flanker, Sebastian Negri Da Oleggio, in the 80th minute of the match in contravention of Law 9.12.

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The ref mic picked up Bastareaud calling Negri a ‘f***ing f****t’ which caused a storm of criticism for the player.

You may also like: New Zealand Sevens prodigy Etene Nanai-Seturo shows his deadly left step during his Mitre 10 Cup debut.

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J
JW 14 minutes ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Where? I remember saying "unders"? The LNR was formed by the FFR, if I said that in a way that meant the 'pro' side of the game didn't have an equal representation/say as the 'amateur' side (FFR remit) that was not my intent.


But also, as it is the governing body, it also has more responsibility. As long as WR looks at FFR as the running body for rugby in France, that 'power' will remain. If the LNR refuses to govern their clubs use of players to enable a request by FFR (from WR) to ensure it's players are able to compete in International rugby takes place they will simply remove their participation. If the players complain to the France's body, either of their health and safety concerns (through playing too many 'minutes' etc) or that they are not allowed to be part in matches of national interest, my understanding is action can be taken against the LNR like it could be any other body/business. I see where you're coming from now re EPCR and the shake up they gave it, yes, that wasn't meant to be a separate statement to say that FFR can threaten them with EPCR expulsion by itself, simply that it would be a strong repercussion for those teams to be removed (no one would want them after the above).


You keep bringing up these other things I cannot understand why. Again, do you think if the LNR were not acting responsibly they would be able to get away with whatever they want (the attitude of these posters saying "they pay the players")? You may deem what theyre doing currently as being irresponsible but most do not. Countries like New Zealand have not even complained about it because they've never had it different, never got things like windfall TV contracts from France, so they can't complain because theyre not missing out on anything. Sure, if the French kept doing things like withholding million dollar game payments, or causing millions of dollars of devaluation in rights, they these things I'm outlining would be taking place. That's not the case currently however, no one here really cares what the French do. It's upto them to sort themselves out if they're not happy. Now, that said, if they did make it obvious to World Rugby that they were never going to send the French side away (like they possibly did stating their intent to exclude 20 targeted players) in July, well then they would simply be given XV fixtures against tier 2 sides during that window and the FFR would need to do things like the 50/50 revenue split to get big teams visiting in Nov.

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