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Francois Louw has been suspended for three weeks, meaning he will miss the Champions Cup clash with Scarlets on Friday night and next week's West Country derby with Gloucester.

The Bath Rugby and Springbok flanker admitted making contact with the eye area of Benetton Rugby lock Marco Fuser in the win at the Rec last Saturday.

Louw and the club felt he had been bitten before he put his hand on Fuser's face in the 77th minute scuffle, but a disciplinary panel said they had "insufficient evidence" to find the Italian guilty of the charge against him.

Bath's director of rugby Todd Blackadder said: "We are disappointed to lose Francois for three weeks but accept the decision.

"There was absolutely no malice in Francois’s actions and there was another incident at the time, for which the opposition player has been cited.

"However, we all know that you cannot put your hands on someone’s face due to the risk to player safety and we accept the sanction imposed by the authorities.

“Our attention is now focussed on preparing for our game against Scarlets on Friday night.”

Louw came on for Sam Underhill in the 20th minute of the win against Benetton.

In the 77th minute, he dragged lock Fuser out of a ruck, the pair scuffled and Louw ended up putingt his hand on his opponent’s face when he was on the ground.

Here is a clip of the incident...

Sitting in London, the committee upheld the citing raised by match citing commissioner, Tim Lowry, and deemed the offence worthy of a red card.

They found it was at the lower end of World Rugby's sanctions, meaning a four-week ban was the starting point. That was reduced by a week due to Louw's admission.

There were no aggravating factors but, as Louw didn't have a clean disciplinary record - he was banned for two weeks in February for a tip tackle - the ban wasn't reduced any further.

(Image: Ian Johnson/Taking Pictures (Sport) Ltd)



The committee viewed video evidence, heard submissions from Louw, from Sam Jones, Bath's lawyer, and team manager Sophie Bennett.

They also hear submissions from the EPCR disciplinary officer, Liam McTiernan.

Louw is free to play on Monday, November 6. He is expected to be with South Africa for the autumn internationals next month; meaning the next game he is likely to play for Bath will be away at Exeter Chiefs on December 2.

South Africa play Wales that weekend, but as it is outside the autumn Test window Bath don't have to release him.

Fuser was accused of biting Louw's forearm as he was pulled to the ground and faced a ban starting from 12 weeks and upwards.



The committee concluded "there was insufficient evidence to support the charge" and dismissed the citing complaint.

