O’Driscoll’s assailant banned by French

The French have backed

up their outrage over Brian

O'Driscoll being punched

by banning his assailant,

Mike Tewhata, pending a

full inquiry.

Furious French Rugby

Federation president

Bernard Lapasset had

vowed to get to the bottom

of the second-half incident

that will see the Ireland

captain missing the start of

the World Cup.

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He has a

fractured sinus and deep

cut under his right eye after

last week's warm-up game

against Bayonne.

It was

initially feared Ireland's

record try-scorer could be

sidelined for the whole

competition after he was

taken to hospital with what

appeared to be a broken

cheekbone, and coach

Eddie O'Sullivan admitted

he was "genuinely worried".

The injury was one of

several controversial

incidents in a fractious friendly when five players

sin-binned.

"The federal bureau have

decided to ban Tewhata

until we have the results of

the investigation, and the

referee's report," said

Lapasset. "I haven't the

words to describe what I

feel. This should have been

a festival of rugby."