Dusautoir supports embattled Bastareaud

THIERRY DUSAUTOIR believes France team-mate Mathieu Bastareaud has been “sufficiently punished” for lying about being mugged during Les Bleus’ summer tour of the southern hemisphere.

Bastareaud is facing a lengthy international ban after he was forced to retract his original claim he was the subject of an unprovoked attack following a night out after France’s 14-10 Test defeat by New Zealand in Wellington in June.

His claim caused New Zealand Prime Minister John Key to publicly apologise on behalf of the country and a police investigation was launched, before the 20-year-old centre admitted he had made the story up and had actually hit his head falling over because he had drunk too much.

The Stade Francais star will discover next month what sanction he will face from the French Rugby Federation (FFR) but Dusautoir, who was France’s stand-in captain this summer, is pleading for leniency.

“If he lied, I think he has been sufficiently punished for that,” he said.

“This affair has been taken out of proportion. It would be good that we left it there.”

Stade president Max Guazzini has revealed Bastareaud was admitted to a Paris psychiatric facility after the incident.

Bastareaud is back in training with Stade but FFR president Francois Alguacil told newspaper Le Parisien yesterday that the centre could be banned from the France squad for between one and three years.

Dusautoir added: “I am a little sad for him because he is someone who is gentle and I am sorry something happened to him in New Zealand.

“I also think that in saying what he said, he was far from imagining the consequences of this lie and that he was taken over by the events.”

A three-year ban would rule Bastareaud out of the 2011 World Cup, which is being held in New Zealand.