Three weeks on appeal
Montpellier back-rower Lenni Nouchi will miss France’s first two games of the Nations Championship after the French federation’s appeal committee handed him a three-week suspension. The ban came on Friday and the reaction from his club arrived on Monday.
The 22-year-old, capped eight times, was shown an orange card against Toulon in early October for a dangerous tackle, two minutes after returning from injury, and he suffered a concussion on the same play. The league’s disciplinary panel had downgraded it to a yellow. The federation’s appeal body overturned that and imposed the suspension, which covers Montpellier’s Top 14 games against Castres and Lyon as well as France’s Tests against Fiji this Saturday and South Africa a week later, both at 21:10 local time.
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“I did not understand”
Montpellier manager Joan Caudullo made his feelings plain. He said he did not know who had appealed, found it odd that a decision by the league’s panel was reopened, and could not see why the federation would sanction a France international in a way that affects the national team. He ended with a jab, wondering aloud whether the federation employs South Africans and Argentines.
Nouchi was not in the 42-man group Fabien Galthié named last week, because of a quadriceps lesion, so the practical impact on the France squad is limited. The bigger question is the South Africa game, where the ban would have kept him out regardless of fitness.
RMC points to a contrast across the Channel: Leinster prop Tadhg Furlong was cleared over an alleged grab on Gavin Coombes and is available for all four Nations Championship matches.
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