French rugby captain Mathieu Bastareaud faces a lengthy ban, after brutally attacking an opponent in a Top 14 club clash at Toulon.
The barnstorming centre, who led the national side during their New Zealand tour in June, was sent off for smashing a forearm across the head of Castres lock Christophe Samson, as he lay prone on the ground.
One commentator described the incident as "bordering on assault".
Samson probably instigated the incident by tackling Bastareaud from an offside position at a ruck and was shown a yellow card that essentially nullified Bastareaud's absence for the remaining 11 minutes of the encounter.
At the time, Toulon trailled the reigning French champions 27-20, but they fought back over the closing minutes to win 28-27, with former All Black Liam Messam scoring the opening try in the fourth minute.
Bastareaud has a chequered disciplinary record - he missed the start of this year's Six Nations international competition, serving a three-week ban for using homophobic slurs against Benetton's Sebastian Negri in a Champions Cup game.
He is also notorious for fabricating claims that he was mugged in Wellington during his first New Zealand tour in 2009, claiming he was attacked by five men at a taxi rank, when he was actually just extremely drunk.
Newshub.
