Tounesi like Mike Tyson
?
Not quite but almost.
Not the lobe of an ear but the '
Azzurra reacted to the gesture of an opponent by biting her hand.
The second line, which is playing with
Italrugby
, the women's World Cup in New Zealand
has been disqualified for 12 games
.
His fault was having bitten an opponent
(defined as "a completely unsportsmanlike gesture"), specifically
on one hand
, during
last Sunday's match against Japan
, which gave the Italians a
historic qualification to the quarter-finals
.
The 27-year-old from Cremona who plays in England in Sale Sharks, after two seasons in France at Clermont,
reacted with the gesture,
which now costs her the maxi disqualification,
to the behavior of Japan's # 7, Nijiho Nagata,
who had put her several times a hand on the face
during a grouping while the blue was defending the ball and calling for the support of her team mates.
But all this, for the committee chaired by Christopher Quinlan "after considering all the evidence and the video of the action", was not an excuse, at most a mitigating factor, and for this they imposed 12 games of disqualification, and not the 18 that the Tounesi risked taking according to the rules in force.
The curious thing is that, on the field, the Irish referee Cogger-Orr did not notice anything, as well as the linesmen and the referee at the slow motion, who in theory must also monitor these episodes.
Nagata then showed her hand to the referee, and after the game Japan "sued" Tounesi.
So we arrived at the severe punishment, on which the Azzurri just say they will appeal, also because
the quarter-final against France is played on Saturday
and therefore the appeal will be discussed first.
The hope is that it will end, as in the case of Kyle Sinckler of the British Lions, who bit Springbok Franco Mostert in the arm in last August's test match against South Africa: his gesture was deemed "unintentional" , and therefore Sinckler was not sanctioned.
In the case of the Azzurra, however, the odds do not seem many.
In rugby, a "rough" sport par excellence, such gestures, although not frequent, have already happened in the past, but perhaps it is the
first time that occurs during a women's match
.
He lost the lobe of an ear, just like Evander Holyfield against Mike Tyson, Marco Chesani, player of the Pedemontana Livenza, who received the bite of an opponent during a Serie C match in 2018. The "biting" rugby player, Riccardo Amadeus Fabris, pylon of the Oderzo Griffins then ended up in court sentenced to 4 months for "very serious injuries".