Stade Français' impressive 27-7 European Champions Cup victory over Munster last weekend was marred by an ugly eye gouging incident which saw the French side's Fijian back Josaia Raisuqe sent off.Â* On Wednesday he received a hefty ban. While Stade's domestic league form has been something of a disaster, things do seem to be going much better in Europe. They showed great character to beat two time champions Munster despite playing the entire second half with only 14 men. Despite what initially seemed to be a trivial altercation between Raisuqe and Munster Number 8 CJ Stander, Raisuqe's exuberance got the better of him, leaving referee Nigel Owens, with no option but to dismiss him. Law 10.4(m) for "making contact with the eye or the eye area" has been one of increasingly prolonged punishments of late. The most recent case was Argentina's Mariano Galarza who received a nine week ban for gouging the eyes of New Zealand lock Brodie Retallick in the Rugby World Cup. Raisuqe has now surpassed that, being banned for a massive 15 weeks. He will miss the entire Champions Cup, unless Stade make the final. “In upholding the red card decision, the Judicial Officer found that Raisuqe had committed an intentional act of foul play," the statement read. "He determined that that offence was at the mid-range of World Rugby’s sanctions and selected 18 weeks as the appropriate entry point. "He added three weeks as a deterrent according to World Rugby’s memorandum regarding offences of this nature, before reducing the sanction by one third of the entry point (ie. six weeks) due to Raisuqe’s guilty plea, good conduct at the hearing, expression of remorse and youth and inexperience. He then imposed a suspension of 15 weeks." It's not the first time Stade have been involved in such foul play against Irish opposition in Europe. Julien Dupuy was given a six month ban after his attack on Ulster's Stephen Ferris in 2009.

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