Zebre Hooker Escapes With Short Ban After Biting Incident In Connacht Match

Zebre hooker Oliviero Fabiani has been suspended for nine weeks after biting Connacht’s Quinn Roux during last weekend’s Champions Cup tie.

Fabiani was found guilty of infringing Law 10.4 (m) by an independent Disciplinary Hearing but managed to escape with a ‘low end’ punishment, despite footage clerly showing him bite Roux in the 29th minute of the game.

The Italian international was shown a red-card for the incident but should consider himself extremely lucky to escape with such a short ban, given the severity of the infringement.

The forward pleaded guilty to the offence and the committee found that the offence was mid-range of World Rugby’s sanctions and selected an 18-week ban as the appropriate entry point.

However, it was then cut to a nine-week suspension due to Fabiani’s ‘timely guilty plea, expression of remorse and clean disciplinary record.’