{"id":143663,"date":"2025-09-14T23:39:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T23:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/143663\/"},"modified":"2025-09-14T23:39:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T23:39:11","slug":"irelands-aoife-wafer-claims-she-was-bitten-by-frances-axelle-berthoumieu-france-v-ireland-quarter-final-result","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/143663\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland’s Aoife Wafer claims she was bitten by France’s Axelle Berthoumieu; France v Ireland quarter final result"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland captain Sam Monaghan asked the match referee about an alleged biting incident during the loss to France in the Women’s Rugby World Cup<\/a> quarter finals on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Monaghan said teammate Aoife Wafer claimed she was bitten by opposite flanker Axelle Berthoumieu at Sandy Park.<\/p>\n

A video of the incident showed Berthoumieu on the bottom of a ruck with her mouth apparently on the arm of Wafer.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Kerr scores 100th goal in ‘perfect’ 634-day return<\/a><\/p>\n

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READ MORE: ‘They choked’: Great slams Crows’ finals collapse<\/a><\/p>\n

Wafer then seemed to show her arm to referee Aimee Barrett-Theron, who was heard telling Ireland players that she “didn’t see anything”.<\/p>\n

No formal review of the incident was made during the match.<\/p>\n

\"Ireland's<\/p>\n

Ireland’s Aoife Wafer claims she was bitten by French flanker Axelle Berthoumieu.\u00a0Stan<\/p>\n

\u201cI spoke to the referee,\u201d Monaghan said post-match.<\/p>\n

“Aoife told me, I didn\u2019t see it myself, but I spoke to the referee and asked them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ireland coach Scott Bemand was asked about it after his side lost 18-13.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think in terms of process, your on-pitch leadership would mention to the referee,\u201d Bemand said.<\/p>\n

“Then it’s up to the team officials to deal with it, should they see fit at that point.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the moment, I haven’t seen anything. If there are bits to pursue, we could potentially be disappointed but we’ve followed the process as best we can from our perspective in terms of the on-pitch conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ireland's<\/p>\n

Ireland’s Aoife Wafer shows her arm to the referee after claiming she was bitten by French flanker Axelle Berthoumieu.\u00a0Stan<\/p>\n

France captain Manae Feleu spoiled Ireland’s last-chance lineout and sent her team into the semifinals.<\/p>\n

Two last-minute penalties gave Ireland a throw-in five metres from the try line with the French short a woman; Alexandra Chambon was in the sin-bin.<\/p>\n

France gambled on lifting players instead of bracing for an Irish maul and Feleu, at the front, got finger-tips to the throw-in to knock on the ball and end the nerve-wracking finale.<\/p>\n

The tenacious Irish playing their first knockout match in 11 years couldn’t believe it.<\/p>\n

“We’re heartbroken,” Ireland captain Monaghan said.<\/p>\n

“It went to the death. We took them to a dark place. It was in our hands.”<\/p>\n

Watch every match of the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 streaming live and on-demand on Stan Sport<\/a><\/p>\n

While the French defence prevailed at the end, their try line stand to close the first half was even more incredible.<\/p>\n

Ireland had first use of what Sandy Park veterans predicted was a 15-point wind and was 13-0 up but desperate for a possibly decisive third try.<\/p>\n

Feleu was in the sin-bin for collapsing a 20-meter rolling maul and somehow her 14 teammates repelled 35 phases by the Irish that lasted for four edge-of-the-seat minutes.<\/p>\n

\"France<\/p>\n

France celebrate at the final whistle during the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025.\u00a0CameraSport via Getty Images<\/p>\n

“It was a match of character. We had to defend like our lives depended on it,” France winger Joanna Grisez said.<\/p>\n

“We’ve got guts. It felt like they could have attacked all afternoon and still wouldn’t have broken through.”<\/p>\n

Ireland tries by prop Linda Djougang and fullback Stacey Flood \u2014 playing on a stitched right foot cut to the bone last weekend against New Zealand \u2014 and Dannah O’Brien’s only successful goal kick made it 13-0.<\/p>\n

But it didn’t appear enough in the conditions, especially having spent 80 per cent of the half on French turf. France missed only four tackles in the first half.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland captain Sam Monaghan asked the match referee about an alleged biting incident during the loss to France…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-143663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}