Ibañez banned for stamp

Seeing yellow: Raphaël Ibañez is shown where to go by referee Paul Honis

France captain Raphaël Ibañez has been suspended for one match after admitting a charge of stamping on Argentina lock Rimas Alvarez Kairelis.

Ibañez was sin-binned by referee Paul Honiss for the offence at the end of the first half in France's third-place play-off defeat to Argentina on Friday.

While he will not be available for Wasps' EDF Energy Cup match against the Dragons this weekend, the citing officer ruled Ibañez had not deserved a yellow card.

"The referee's reasons for his decision to award a yellow card for the incident...were wrong," said Judicial officer Jannie Lubbe.

The Wasps hooker, who played in possibly his last international, was substituted after his ten-minute stint in the sin bin and did not return to the Parc des Princes pitch.

"I was so worked up maybe it was better that way," said Ibañez.

Argentina, who also beat France in the opening game of the tournament, ran in five tries to end their campaign in style.

Ibañez blamed the Pumas for persistently infringing in the rucks and provoking scuffles.

"There were some deplorable outbursts which had nothing to do with rugby," he said before blaming referee Honiss, who gave two yellow cards to Argentina players, for being too lenient.

"There are people whose job it is to control what happens around the rucks.

"When you have players who keep lying over the ball and stop you from releasing it, something must be done."