Ulster beat the Paris side 23-13 and an ERC disciplinary panel is due to be held in Dublin on Thursday to make a ruling on the players’ actions ahead of the reverse fixture in Brussels this weekend. Dupuy and Attoub will also be hauled before Stade’s own internal hearing on Friday following the unsavoury incident which involved Ulster back-row Stephen Ferris.

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The French pair have already released a statement of their own via the Stade Francais website, while the club itself has apologised to Ulster.

“The club deeply regret this situation,” said a Stade statement. “We envisage taking disciplinary sanctions against the players despite their citation before an ERC commission,” it added.

“It is normal that the club penalises players for actions as dumb and stupid,” said the Dupuy-Attoub statement. “Again, we apologise to the Ulster players and the club, whom we did not mean to cause offence. The actions were neither premeditated nor intentional.

“We want to apologise to our club, our staff and supporters for the negative image that we have left with these actions,” it added.

It remains to be seen whether their swift apologies will hold any sway with the ERC’s disciplinary panel, with the least the pair can expect being a minimum 12-week ban if found guilty. That could be lengthened substantially, however, if the panel deems their actions to have been at the more serious end of the eye-gouging scale.

Dupuy looks to be in the more serious trouble with television footage showing him twice putting his fingers into Ferris’ eyes. “I stupidly got riled up, like an idiot. I think my gesture came from irritation,” he admitted. “The images aren’t really in my favour, but I really didn’t want to put my fingers in his eyes,” added France’s number one choice scrum-half.

London Wasps coach Shaun Edwards, for one, would like to see a far more lengthy ban, with the former rugby league international describing eye-gouging as “the worst things you can do on a rugby field”. Edwards said he felt a year-long ban would be appropriate for the alleged offences.

Brive’s Arnaud Mela and Guillaume Ribes are also due before the ERC disciplinary beaks following incidents in their 36-3 home defeat by London Irish on Saturday. Mela was cited for an alleged punch on hooker Danie Coetzee, while replacement hooker Ribes was sent off for kicking an Exiles player.

The four disciplinary citations capped a disappointing weekend for French clubs in the Heineken Cup with only two out of six (Biarritz and Clermont Auvergne) registering wins. That could change with the reverse fixtures this weekend, but the likely loss of Dupuy and Attoub is a headache that Stade boss Jacques Delmas could have well done without as they push on towards trying to qualify for the knockout stages.

Across Paris, meanwhile, Racing-Métro 92 duo Benjamin Noirot and Simon Raiwalui have been suspended for 30 and 10 days respectively following their November 21^st league win against Stade Francais (who else).

Noirot was handed a 30-day ban by the LNR Disciplinary Commission for punching, and will not be unavailable for the third-placed side until January 8^th 2010. Raiwalui is available again on December 19^th.

It is the latest player blow to Racing, following Mathieu Lorée's admission last week that he had smoked cannabis, but the Parisians remain on an eight-match winning streak in Top 14 that has seen them shoot up the table under the guidance of head coach Pierre Berbizier.

Racing were also at the centre of some intriguing transfer speculation this week, with Clermont Auvergne’s international flanker Julien Bonnaire tipped to join them in the summer. The 31-year-old, who has 47 caps for France, is apparently happy to make the switch, although nothing official can be announced until after February 1^st. Midi Olympique also reported that Jacky Lorenzetti’s club unsuccessfully tried to lure fellow French international Imanol Harinordoquy away from Biarritz. The veteran flanker, or number eight, has also reportedly attracted the interest of Bayonne.

If Bonnaire does join Racing it seems that Clermont’s Kiwi coach Vern Cotter has already targeted Castres’ former All Black Chris Masoe as a potential replacement.