The Toulon president, Mourad Boudjellal, has written to Leicester to apologise for the outburst of Martin Castrogiovanni after Sunday’s European Champions Cup defeat at Welford Road. The Top 14 club have also suspended the prop for three days and fined him, according to a report in the French newspaper La Provence.
The ban is said to start on Wednesday, meaning Castrogiovanni would be available for the return against Leicester on Saturday, although he was never likely to be selected given that New Zealand’s Carl Hayman is the first-choice tighthead.
European Professional Club Rugby is deciding whether to hit Castrogiovanni with a misconduct charge.
Castrogiovanni entered the media room after the match and launched into an expletive-laced attack on Leicester’s director of rugby, Richard Cockerill, claiming the full circumstances of his departure from Leicester the previous year had never been made public. He issued an apology for his language less than 24 hours later, but by then theTigers had made a complaint to EPCR which is investigating the incident.
“I was very surprised by Martin’s behaviour,” said Boudjellal. “This is not the boy I know. It was clear that he was disappointed, but he used bad language. I did not expect that.
“We are sending Leicester and Richard Cockerill a letter of apology and I will be meeting the player with Bernard Laporte [the Toulon head coach] to decide whether to take any action. Some form of sanction cannot be ruled out.”
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