Rugby: Magne hits out at Irish injustice
Friday, 10 March 2000 17:05French flanker Olivier Magne today claimed he had been stitched up after being handed a three week ban for headbutting Scotland's Stuart Reid following a yesterday. Magne was found guilty of a breach of law 26-3 of the laws of the game and has been suspended for three weeks terminating at midnight on the March 25. He will not be available for his country's until their final match of the Championship against Italy on April 1. A furious Magne said, "This has been a stitch-up. This sentence was already decided before the hearing and I sensed that when I arrived in Dublin. After all, I was being heard by Irishmen in Ireland a week before we play Ireland".
Magne, who scored two tries in the 28-16 win over the Scots, claimed he had accidentally butted Reid after the Scottish flanker had pulled off his scrum-cap. While the commission refused to accept that explanation, the 33-times capped Montferrand forward escaped the ultimate sanction of 60 days.
France squad to meet Ireland in the Six Nations championship at the Stade de France, Paris on the 19th March:
Backs: Thomas Castaignede (Castres), Emile Ntamack (Toulouse), David Venditti (Brive), Thomas Lombard (Stade Francais), Stephane Glas (Bourgoin), Christophe Dominici (Stade Francais), Gerald Merceron (Montferrand), Alain Penaud (Toulouse), Aubin Hueber (Toulon), Christophe Laussucq (Stade Francais).
Forwards: Christian Califano (Toulouse), Franck Tournaire (Toulouse), Pieter De Villiers (Stade Francais), Raphael Ibanez (Perpignan), Marc Dal Maso (Colomiers), Olivier Brouzet (Begles-Bordeaux), Hugues Miorin (Toulouse), Fabien Pelous (Toulouse, cap), Thomas Lievremont (Perpignan), Arnaud Costes (Montferrand), Abdelatif Benazzi (Agen), Sebastien Chabal (Bourgoin).
