'Worst week of my life' - Teddy Thomas banned for incident with ex-teammate
Former France winger Teddy Thomas has said he's experienced one of the worst weeks of his life as he copped a hefty ban for a dangerous tackle on a former teammate.
In a disciplinary decision stemming from the incident against Racing 92 on November 26, the La Rochelle winger was handed a five-week suspension. The tackle in question occurred during La Rochelle's 32-10 defeat to the Parisians, where Thomas received a red card for his dangerous tackle on Nolann Le Garrec.
The committee gave him a ten-week suspension due to the gravity of the offence which was mitigated to five weeks due to Thomas' acknowledgement of the incident, expression of remorse, his behaviour before and during the hearing, and a clean disciplinary record.
The 30-year-old winger - who fell out of favour with France head coach Fabien Galthie in recent years - expressed regret for the challenge against his former teammate.
"Immediately, at the moment, I blamed myself," Thomas stated in an interview with AFP. "Firstly, because he is a person (Le Garrec) that I really like and I played with him. And secondly, under no circumstances do I want to hurt anyone on the pitch."
Thomas opened up about the challenging week leading up to the incident, citing personal and family issues. "I had family problems, my girlfriend too. So I wasn't very present in La Rochelle because I had to go down to Biarritz during the week to sort all that out," he explained. "Then, red on the weekend. It was really a shit week, I have no other words... if not the worst week of my life. Really."
In response to the suspension, Thomas has also requested to benefit from the Head Contact Process, a mechanism that could potentially reduce his sanction by an additional week. As it stands, Thomas is suspended until his requalification on December 31.
Notably, in the same encounter against Racing, La Rochelle head coach Ronan O'Gara was handed a one-week suspension "for reasons of indiscipline and in particular nervousness." O'Gara is set to be requalified on December 11.
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> It would be best described as an elegant solution to what was potentially going to be a significant problem for new All Blacks coach Scott Robertson. It is a problem the mad population of New Zealand will have to cope with more and more as All Blacks are able to continue their careers in NZ post RWCs. It will not be a problem for coaches, who are always going to start a campaign with the captain for the next WC in mind. > Cane, despite his warrior spirit, his undoubted commitment to every team he played for and unforgettable heroics against Ireland in last year’s World Cup quarter-final, was never unanimously admired or respected within New Zealand while he was in the role. Neither was McCaw, he was considered far too passive a captain and then out of form until his last world cup where everyone opinions changed, just like they would have if Cane had won the WC. > It was never easy to see where Cane, or even if, he would fit into Robertson’s squad given the new coach will want to be building a new-look team with 2027 in mind. > Cane will win his selections on merit and come the end of the year, he’ll sign off, he hopes, with 100 caps and maybe even, at last, universal public appreciation for what was a special career. No, he won’t. Those returning from Japan have already earned the right to retain their jersey, it’s in their contract. Cane would have been playing against England if he was ready, and found it very hard to keep his place. Perform, and they keep it however. Very easy to see where Cane could have fit, very hard to see how he could have accomplished it choosing this year as his sabbatical instead of 2025, and that’s how it played out (though I assume we now know what when NZR said they were allowing him to move his sabbatical forward and return to NZ next year, they had actually agreed to simply select him for the All Blacks from overseas, without any chance he was going to play in NZ again). With a mammoth season of 15 All Black games they might as well get some value out of his years contract, though even with him being of equal character to Richie, I don’t think they should guarantee him his 100 caps. That’s not what the All Blacks should be about. He absolutely has to play winning football.
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