\u201cBeing chosen for a Rugby World Cup semifinal is a pinnacle moment for both players and match officials,\u201d chair of the Emirates World Rugby Match Officials Committee Su Carty said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a remarkable achievement and a great honour. I wholeheartedly congratulate Aimee, Maggie, and the entire team. I am confident they will embrace this occasion, relish the experience, and represent our match officials with pride and distinction.\u201d<\/p>\n
France duo out of Women\u2019s Rugby World Cup semi-final as bans upheld<\/p>\n
Meanwhile France\u2019s Axelle Berthoumieu will miss the rest of the Women\u2019s Rugby World Cup after an appeal panel upheld a ban for biting during last weekend\u2019s quarter-final against Ireland.<\/p>\n
French coach Gaelle Mignot also confirmed that first five-eighth Lina Queyroi had not recovered from a concussion against Ireland and, like banned pair Berthoumieu and co-captain Manae Feleu, would miss the semifinal in Bristol against top seeds England.<\/p>\n
Berthoumieu had appealed a 12-match ban for biting against Ireland and while the panel reduced her suspension to nine games she cannot play Sunday.<\/p>\n
The 25-year-old will also miss the September 27 finals day at Twickenham, when France will either be involved in a third-place play-off or the final itself.<\/p>\n
Feleu is out for the remainder of the tournament after losing her appeal against a three-match ban for a dangerous tackle, also during the 18-13 win over Ireland in Exeter.<\/p>\n
Under the disciplinary process at the World Cup, there is now no further right of appeal for either player.<\/p>\n
Berthoumieu was cited for biting Ireland\u2019s Aoife Wafer.<\/p>\n
She accepted she had committed a red-card offence but appealed against the length of her ban.<\/p>\n
Berthoumieu in an Instagram post published Tuesday, apologised for her actions by saying: \u201cOn Sunday during the match against Ireland, I lost my nerve.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know it\u2019s unacceptable and I\u2019m aware that it puts an end to my World Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like to sincerely apologise to Aoife Wafer and the Irish team, to my teammates and our staff, to the FFR (French rugby federation), and to all those who support us.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not the image I want to give or the player I want to be. I accept the punishment, and I take responsibility.<\/p>\n
\u201cRugby is a sport of respect, and this gesture has no place on a rugby field.\u201d<\/p>\n
France were losing 13-0 at the time of the offence.<\/p>\n
Ireland captain Sam Monaghan said she raised the incident with the referee, but no action was taken at the time as, according to a World Rugby statement issued Monday, the television match official was \u201cunable to determine clear and obvious foul play\u201d.<\/p>\n
The appeal panel, working off a starting point of an 18-week suspension for biting, ruled that in light of Berthoumieu\u2019s admission of guilt, her clean disciplinary record and her remorse and public apology, she was entitled to full mitigation of 50 percent — hence a nine-week ban.<\/p>\n
The appeal panel added it \u201cdetermined no grounds for change\u201d in upholding the three-game ban imposed on Feleu.<\/p>\n
This will be reduced to two if she completes a course at World Rugby\u2019s \u2018tackle school\u2019 but her World Cup is over.<\/p>\n
Mignot said three France players had suffered head injuries against Ireland.<\/p>\n
She added that while prop Rose Bernadou and centre Gabrielle Vernier \u201care doing very well and are eligible to play this weekend\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor Lina Queyroi, it\u2019s different,\u201d Mignot explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe did not respond favourably to the protocol. It will take several more days,\u201d with the coach adding Carla Arbez would start instead.<\/p>\n
France have lost their last 16 Tests against England, but only fell a point short after an extraordinary comeback during a dramatic 43-42 defeat in a Women\u2019s Six Nations clash at Twickenham in April.<\/p>\n
The winner of Sunday\u2019s match will face either reigning champions New Zealand or Canada in the World Cup final.<\/p>\n
– With AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cBeing chosen for a Rugby World Cup semifinal is a pinnacle moment for both players and match officials,\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[4891,9490,99939,64,63,22806,21677,15127,18084,3326,10966,99937,10959,3933,1208,580,2592,20612,8835,99936,99938,24097,760,25906,85,10965,24351,1720,3205],"class_list":["post-148137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-4891","tag-after","tag-assignment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-been","tag-being","tag-between","tag-biggest","tag-career","tag-charge","tag-coggerorr","tag-confirmed","tag-cup","tag-england","tag-for","tag-france","tag-given","tag-kiwi","tag-maggie","tag-named","tag-referee","tag-rugby","tag-semifinal","tag-sports","tag-take","tag-womens","tag-world","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148137","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=148137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}