Stade Francais president Max Guazzini has labelled Julien Dupuy's six-month ban for eye-gouging as "excessive, very political and anti-French".

The flamboyant club owner hit out after the ERC disciplinary panel effectively ended Dupuy's season with the draconian ban. It is due to run until June 3rd, meaning the player - 26 today - will not be able to take any further part in Top 14 this season, and will also miss France's summer tour to the southern hemisphere.

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National coach Marc Lièvremont was also alarmed at the length of the ban, and urged Stade Francais to appeal to decision.

"We expected the worse and the worse thing has happened to Julien because six months is huge," said Lièvremont. "I hope there is an appeal and that the ban is replaced by something more reasonable," he added.

Guazzini, meanwhile, claimed there was anti-French bias to the ERC's decision, especially after Italy's Sergio Parisse - another Stade Francais player - and South Africa's Schalk Burger only received eight-week bans for eye-gouging offences during summer international games.

"The ERC wanted to make an example of a symbolic player of Stade Francais and of the French team which has never had a disciplinary problem," railed Guazzini. "It's not normal that a private organisation in Ireland prevents a club employee from working, from playing. It is we who pay him," he added.

That last quote shows that Guazzini has clearly allowed his anger to cloud his comments, but there's no doubt that the feeling in France is that Dupuy has been used as a high-profile casualty of the IRB's stated aim of cracking down on eye-gouging.

Perhaps the more pertinent question to ask is why do these incidents only ever hit the headlines in European club games, rather than in Top 14 matches? Is it a case of being ignored domestically but penalised by the larger rugby community?  

Sentencing on Dupuy's team-mate David Attoub, who was also cited for eye-gouging, was delayed on Friday until an unspecified date in the New Year. It is understood that the ERC disciplinary panel is seeking technical verification of a seemingly incriminating photograph that Stade now claim was 'doctored'. The photographer concerned, Olivier McVeigh, attended today's hearing in Dublin and denied any foul play, but the delay would seem to indicate that the panel want forensic confirmation before they pass judgement. Attoub is suspended in the meantime.

Dupuy knew that he faced a minimum of 12 weeks out but panel chairman Jeff Blackett decided his actions were serious enough to warrant the six month ban as the IRB continues its crackdown on eye-gouging.