Two Fingers to the French

I'm waiting.

Waiting for what?

The inevitable "Anti-French" backlash.  (Yawn).

Why?

Well two reasons.


Firstly, David Attoub's 70 week ban for trying to poke out Stephen Ferris' eyes has been upheld.

Good.

Where was the appeal hearing? 

You've guessed it: London.

Quelle horreur.  It MUST be a case of everyone in England hating the French.

No.  Rules are rules.  Get over it.

Secondly, James "Le Hask" Haskell is starring as the rope in what is possibly the most pointless club v country tug of war ever.

Johnno wants to keep him in the England set up this weekend.  Stade Francais want him to slip on a fetching pink rugby shirt and his ridiculous white boots and trot out against Toulouse on Saturday.

I don't know what all the fuss is about.  Haskell did an excellent impression of Mr. Invisible against Ireland so why do either parties want him so badly?

It would be more understandable if Stade kept sending him back to England to make sure he features in the  France v England game.  Now that would be a cunning French plot to undermine England, by making us have one of our SHIT players back.

Either way, I bet there'll be a lot of furious smoking of Gitanes cigarettes on the other side of the channel.

But seriously Stade Francais, if you want to snatch Le Hask back under the cover of darkness, then please be my guest.

Once, Twice, Three Times a Victim

Another week, another player being banned for attacking Ulster's Stephen Ferris.

Bath's perennial bad-boy, Danny Grewcock has been handed a seven week ban for stamping on Ferris' arm during Bath's 28-10 home Heineken Cup defeat by Ulster.
This comes after Julien Dupuy casually gave Ferris a sneaky facial during the Ulster v Stade Francais Heineken Cup game. 

Then it was the turn of David Attoub, who decided to give Ferris an impromptu eye examination during the same game.

I'm not quite sure what to make of this.  Either Ferris has some kind of hex on him which attracts this kind of negative attention, or strange mystical forces are in place with the message: "Attack Stephen Ferris at your peril."

Well, the saying is that "it comes in threes" so maybe Ferris can finally breathe a sigh of relief.  He hopes.

70 Weeks

22 April 2011.

This is a key date in the life of Stade Francais' prop David Attoub as this is when he will be allowed to play rugby again.  It has been revealed that he is now banned for 70 weeks after being found guilty of making contact with the eye area of Ulster flanker Stephen Ferris during a Heineken Cup game.

70 weeks.  That's quite a long time.  In fact, it's the second longest ban to be handed out for eye-gouging behind Colomiers prop Richard Nones who was slapped with a two-year suspension way back in 1999.

Attoub gouges Ferris' eye

But is it enough?  I still don't think so, especially when you read the words of Attoub's victim, Stephen Ferris:

"The contact was very strong and extremely painful - the finger in my right eye was forced downward in a poking and gouging motion; it was someone trying to drive a finger as hard as he could into my eye socket and I could not prevent it".

When it's put it like this, a 70 week ban for a man who was trying his best to poke out someone's eye and blind him seems very leniant.

The thing that really annoys me about this whole eye-gouging saga is that Attoub hasn't accepted responsibility for his actions or apologised for them, and instead Stade cast doubt of the authenticity of the photo of Attoub gouging the eyes of Ferris.

Of course Attoub is going to appeal, but as there is nothing appealing about this case whatsoever, I for one hope that he fails and the 70 week ban stands.