{"id":139648,"date":"2025-09-15T20:43:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T20:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/139648\/"},"modified":"2025-09-15T20:43:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T20:43:07","slug":"berthoumieu-banned-for-biting-wafer-in-blow-to-france-before-england-clash-womens-rugby-world-cup-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/139648\/","title":{"rendered":"Berthoumieu banned for biting Wafer in blow to France before England clash | Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

The France flanker Axelle Berthou\u00admieu\u00a0has been banned for biting the \u00adIreland back-row Aoife Wafer in their \u00adWomen\u2019s Rugby World Cup \u00adquarter\u2011final<\/a> and the flanker will miss the semi\u2011final against England<\/a> on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Mana\u00e9 Feleu, the France captain, will also miss the England clash as she has been banned for a high tackle in the Ireland game. Both players are appealing against the sanctions.<\/p>\n

The pair were cited on Sunday evening and faced disciplinary \u00adpanels on Monday. Berthoumieu was handed a 12-match ban which was reduced from 18, while Feleu was given a three-match suspension which could be reduced to two if she completes the coaching intervention programme. The bans mean they will both miss the rest of the World Cup.<\/p>\n

Feleu is appealing against the decision as, while she admitted foul play, she did not think it met a citing threshold. Berthoumieu accepts her actions warranted a red card but is appealing against the length of the ban. Both appeals have been provisionally scheduled for Tuesday. If Berthoumieu\u2019s length of sanction is upheld she will next be able to play on 1 March 2026.<\/p>\n

France defeated Ireland 18-13<\/a> after \u00adpulling off a comeback win. The task of overcoming England, the world No\u00a01 side, has become harder with the suspensions, particularly Feleu\u2019s as she has been one of the team\u2019s best \u00adplayers this competition.<\/p>\n

The bite to Wafer was flagged by the player during the match but it was not caught by officials and \u00adBerthoumieu did not receive any punishment \u00adduring the game. The Ireland co-captain Sam Monaghan said post-match: \u201cI spoke to the referee. Aoife told me, I didn\u2019t see it myself, but I spoke to the referee and asked them.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the outcome of the hearings it was said: \u201cIn reviewing the \u00admatter live, the TMO was unable to determine clear and obvious foul play and did not have the benefit of \u00adadditional evidential submissions to corroborate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before their quarter-final against Ireland, France finished top of their pool after wins against Italy, Brazil and South Africa. England, meanwhile, beat Scotland in their \u00adquarter-final<\/a> to reach the last four and are unbeaten in their past 31 games.<\/p>\n

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The Red Roses are favourites to win the trophy at a sold-out Twicken\u00adham on 27 September. Canada or New \u00adZealand will await either France or England in the final, with their semi\u2011final taking place on Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The France flanker Axelle Berthou\u00admieu\u00a0has been banned for biting the \u00adIreland back-row Aoife Wafer in their \u00adWomen\u2019s Rugby…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139649,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-139648","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}