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France captain banned from Women's RWC semi-final
AP • September 17th, 2025 8:49 am
Manaé Feleu | Photo: AP
France flanker Axelle Berthoumieu has had a 12-match ban imposed by World Rugby for biting Ireland's Aoife Wafer in their Women's Rugby World Cup quarter-final reduced on appeal to nine games.
But of more immediate relevance to France is that their captain Manaé Feleu failed in her appeal against a three-match ban for a dangerous tackle and will also miss Saturday's World Cup semi-final against England and the final or bronze final.
Feleu has been one of France's best at her second World Cup. One of her suspended games will be cut if she completes World Rugby's tackle school.
Berthoumieu admitted her offence and accepted the bite was worthy of a red card but disputed the severity of the ban levied.
An independent disciplinary committee on Tuesday found that because of a procedural error her suspension was too long, resulting in the three-game reduction due to her admission, clean disciplinary record, remorse and public apology.
No action was taken against her on the field at the time.
While the incident was picked up on video review during the game after the referee referred it to the Television Match Official following a complaint by Wafer, Berthoumieu was allowed to play on.
World Cup competition director Yvonne Nolan defended the TMO's failure to rule at the time.
"These types of incidents are notoriously difficult to deal with in game, so I recognise that people will review screenshots and so on and have their own views but I would caution that these incidents are really rare," Nolan said.
"I don't think I've ever seen a biting incident being dealt with in game. They almost always require additional information after the game, so that usually includes interviews with the player," Nolan added.
"It includes ruling out things like accidental contact. They also need to establish the force of the contact."
