Clermont lock Jamie Cudmore has been cited for an incident that occured a few days back during the Top 14 side's meeting with Stade Francais in Paris. Cudmore was yellow carded at the time, but has since been summoned to face a disciplinary hearing.
The burly Canadian lock - now sporting an impressive Movember moustache for charity - is no stranger to trouble, and it looks as though this time his reputation has led to another citing.
He lashed out at replacement Jerome Fillol after it appeared that Fillol had done a similar thing to a Clermont player. The difference here is that Cudmore, being a much bigger man, took care of business the way only he knows how, decking Fillol.
Having chatted with him earlier this evening, he told me that he felt the yellow card was pretty fair, but was quite surprised by a citing on top of that. It looked like it was an open fist, but the reputation he carries means he'll usually get heavily dealt with for things like this. You also cannot go around smacking people in the face and expect to get away with it, even if it is in retaliation.
"Any forward, any second-row worth his salt has to do certain things that maybe run afoul of the law for sure. You're out there to dominate the opposition and if sometimes you go a bit overboard, well I'm not going to say sorry," he said in an interview recently.
"I play my game fair, but I play it hard. I have had problems with discipline and cards in the past but I never look back on those things and think 'Oh Jeez, I shouldn't have done that.' Well it's too late, it's done. I'm looking forward and I just want to do my best for the team who I'm playing for."
This incident was actually fairly similar to the Paul Williams red card against South Africa in the World Cup, where Williams was given his marching orders after lashing out at Heinrich Brussow with an open fist. In that case and this one, both players made a bit of a meal of it on the floor.
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