Raisuqe hit with ten-week ban for stamping on Giles

THE Stade Francais player who stamped on Ospreys wing Keelan Giles during Sunday’s European Challenge Cup quarter-final has been banned for 10 weeks – with disciplinary chiefs ruling he should have been red carded for the offence.

Fijian winger Josaia Raisuqe escaped with just a sin-binning after English referee Matthew Carley studied big screen footage of the controversial 19th minute incident at the Principality Stadium.

Raisuqe did eventually see red after picking up a second yellow card for killing the ball after the break. Following the match, which Stade won 25-21, he was cited by Italian citing commissioner Alberto Recaldini and faced an independent disciplinary hearing in Paris yesterday. A disciplinary committee made up of chairman David Martin (Ireland), John Carroll (Ireland) and JeanPhilippe Lachaume (France) heard evidence and submissions from Raisuqe, as well as from a Stade official and EPCR disciplinary officer Liam McTiernan.

The committee upheld the citing complaint, deciding the offence was a stamp to the head and upper body of Giles and therefore warranted a red card. Following recent guidelines concerning kicks and stamps to the head, the committee was required to find the offence was at the top end of World Rugby’s sanctions.

One week was added due to Raisuqe’s recent disciplinary record, with the 22-year-old having been banned for 15 weeks in January 2016 following his sending off for eyegouging against Munster.