only 3 weeks of suspension for the Scotsman McDowall guilty of a fork against Toulon

It seems that the severity for this type of gesture has been lowered… During Glasgow’s defeat on Sunday on the pitch in Toulon, the Scottish center of the Warriors, Stafford McDowall, was guilty of ‘a “fork” on the Var third line Facundo Isa. And, for this bad gesture, he only received a three-week suspension by an independent disciplinary committee. “The player admitted that he had made careless contact with the eye and the independent disciplinary panel decided that the fault was committed by the player. The independent disciplinary commission decided that the offense was at the low end of the seriousness scale, imposing an entry point of 6 weeks of suspension.indicates the EPCR in a press release.

And to explain this clemency: “The player benefited from a 3-week reduction in the length of his suspension due to his good disciplinary record and his quick acceptance of the charge and was therefore suspended for 3 weeks. Considering the schedule during the holiday period, he will be free to play from January 13, 2025.

The severity of EPCR is no longer the same as it was a few years ago. In 2009, scrum half Julien Dupuy received a heavy suspension (23 weeks) for a “fork” on Ulster flanker Stephen Ferris. And his teammate at the time, prop David Attoub, also guilty of “eye-gouging” (in English) on the same player, was punished even more severely: 70 weeks of suspension!

In 2016, three other Parisian players were suspended for such actions. Fijian winger Josaia Raisuqe was sentenced to 15 weeks, the same rate for hooker Laurent Sempéré and second row Paul Gabrillagues was suspended for 8 weeks for another “fork”.