{"id":140245,"date":"2025-09-16T02:55:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T02:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/140245\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T02:55:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T02:55:07","slug":"womens-rugby-world-cup-frances-axelle-berthoumieu-given-12-match-ban-for-biting-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/140245\/","title":{"rendered":"Women’s Rugby World Cup: France’s Axelle Berthoumieu given 12-match ban for biting"},"content":{"rendered":"

France back row Axelle Berthoumieu has been banned for 12 matches after being cited<\/a> for biting Ireland’s Aoife Wafer in Sunday’s World Cup quarter-final.<\/p>\n

The suspension ruled the 25-year-old out of Saturday’s semi-final against England and either the bronze match or final on 27 September, plus a further 10 domestic matches through to March 2026.<\/p>\n

Berthoumieu accepted she committed a red-card offence but will appeal against the length of the ban.<\/p>\n

France second row and co-captain Manae Feleu wlll also miss the England tie with a three-match ban – reduced to two if she completes a tackle school – after being cited for a high tackle in the same match.<\/p>\n

However, Feleu has not accepted the decision and will appeal, with both cases being heard by a disciplinary committee on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The Berthoumieu bite occurred as Ireland won a penalty turnover in the second half of their 18-13 defeat by France at Sandy Park.<\/p>\n

Ireland captain Sam Monaghan said she raised the incident with referee Aimee Barrett-Theron, but no action was taken during the match.<\/p>\n

At the Independent Foul Play Review Committee (FPRC) hearing, it emerged the television match official (TMO) could not determine “clear and obvious foul play” at the time.<\/p>\n

The FPRC was able to reach its decision with the help of written evidence as well as all broadcast angles.<\/p>\n

France were trailing 13-0 at the time of the incident but recovered to take the win and set up a last-four meeting with England at Ashton Gate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"France back row Axelle Berthoumieu has been banned for 12 matches after being cited for biting Ireland’s Aoife…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139848,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-140245","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\/140245","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=140245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}