Stade Francais No.8 out of action till December for Bouilhou gouge as league disciplinary board clamps down on coaches

Stade Francais No.8 Juan Manuel Leguizamon has felt the full force of the LNR's apparent disciplinary crackdown, being slapped with a massive 80-day ban for gouging Toulouse flanker Jean Bouilhou during the Parisians' Week 3 match against the European champions.

At the time, the offence went unpunished, although the over-excited Argentinian had already spent 10 minutes in the sinbin for a dangerous tackle on Thierry Dusautoir. At the hearing, the league's disciplinary committee decided to exclude him from all rugby until December 5, ruling him out of Stade's next seven Top 14 games, two Amlin Cup matches and Argentina's Autumn internationals against the French Barbarians, Italy, France and Ireland.

The 80-day ban is actually the LNR's minimum mandatory tariff for une fourchette. It's believed that a letter sent by Bouilhou to the committee helped reduce the length of the suspension but was not enough to clear Leguizamon of the offence.

Leguizamon becomes the third Stade player to be banned for gouging in the past nine months, following Julien Dupuy's 23-week ban for gouging Ulster flanker Stephen Ferris in the clubs' Heineken Cup clash last December, and prop David Attoub's massive 70-week ban (reduced to 52 weeks on appeal) for attacking the same player in the same game.

You can see the offence towards the end of this clip (around the 2.30 mark - it's Leguizamon diving in from the right of the picture).

Called to the bench

The LNR's disciplinary committee seems to have been stamping down on unsportsmanlike behaviour this season. Already this week Brive and Bayonne have copped a suspended €5000 fine for that French staple, la bagarre generale (a general brawl), during their Week 4 match, and the Basques' coach Christian Gajan was served with a 20-day touchline ban for insulting officials during their first-day win at Toulon.

"I've been treated like a dog," said a disappointed Gajan who will have have to watch the Top 14 leaders' match at his former club Toulouse from the stands. Gajan spent 22 years as player and coach with Toulouse.

Coaches seem to be in the firing line in general, with Toulon assistant Aubin Hueber picking up a 10-day ban for "inappropriate behaviour" towards officials during his club's home defeat to Racing-Metro.

Racing's own coach, Pierre Berbizier, will be in front of the disciplinary board for the second time this season on September 29 following his comments regarding the appointment of Christophe Berdos as referee for Racing's Week 6 clash with La Rochelle. Berbizier escaped punishment on his first appearance last month after accusing Berdos of bias in the club's quarter-final play-off with Clermont back in May.

So it's little wonder then that Stade Francais boss Michael Cheika was more measured in his criticism of Jerome Garcès following the Parisians' home defeat to Brive on Saturday.

"I don't want to talk about the referee because we lost," Cheika told a post-match press conference. "But I've just had a long discussion with Monsieur Garcès to tell him that I'm not in agreement with some of his decisions, notably the yellow card for Leguizamon. These decisions affected the outcome of the encounter." Careful...