Vahaamahina retires from France just 24 hours after his red card against Wales
Sébastien Vahaamahina has decided retire from international rugby, just one day on from receiving a red card which played a major role in France's World Cup quarter-final exit at the hands of Wales.
The France lock received a red card from referee Jaco Peyper, following a TMO review, for elbowing Aaron Wainwright in the face when France were leading 19-10 in early stages of the second half. Wales subsequently fought back to win 20-19.
And while Vahaamahina has come in for heavy criticism for his role in France's defeat, some media outlets in France are reporting that the lock had decided before the World Cup that he would retire following the tournament, regardless of how far France advanced.
"The people impacted by this decision have known since this summer: Jacques Brunel, Franck Azéma, some players also," Vahaamahina is reported as saying by Midi Olympique.
"I really wanted to do well and the desire to achieve the best match possible, the best competition possible and then stop... Maybe I wanted to do too well. My envy and my aggressiveness made me overflow.
"From now on, it's time for me to have an arm surgery, as was the case when I returned from the World Cup. A cycle ends today, a page of my career is turning.
"I'm 28 years old and I can not wait to rebuild myself, physically and morally, to come back even stronger."
Vahaamahina turned 28 today, and has been capped 46 times for France since making his debut against Australia in 2012.
Meanwhile, World Rugby are investigating the circumstances surrounding a photo of referee Peyper with some Wales supporters.
A photo of Peyper appearing to mock the incident which saw Vahaamahina red-carded appeared on social media.
“World Rugby is aware of a picture on social media of referee Jaco Peyper with a group of Wales fans taken after last night’s quarter-final between Wales and France in Oita,” a World Rugby spokesperson said.
“It would be inappropriate to comment further while we are establishing the facts.”
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To be fair it was nowhere bear the Leinster first team (for which, btw, Leinster copped nothing like the outrage that Jake White did for sending a rotated team to the UK). But it’s fun to watch the Stormers doing their thing. They are attracting big, diverse crowds of young fans, and deservedly so. Great to see.
Go to commentsIt might be legal but he’s sailing pretty close to the wind. Not a lot needs to go wrong for Finau to end up in the bin. Was it late? Not quite, but borderline. High? A couple of CM within the laws, no room for error with that one. Did he wrap the arms? There was a token effort to wrap one arm, the intent was clearly to hit with the shoulder. So yeah, it’s legal, just. But as we all know, a very slight change in the dynamics could easily have him seeing red. Hopefully not when it really matters.
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