Ground suspended!

On 29 November 2011 Lucien Harinordoquy came onto the field during a fight involving his son Imanol, the French international, and attacked a Bayonne player.

The matter was the subject of an inquiry by the Ligue Nationale de Rugby which has not taken any action against Harinordoquy pere but has suspended the ground for one championship match.

For the mass brawl at the time, the Basque rivals Biarritz and Bayonne have each been fined €5,000.

The sanction comes into effect on 1 January 2012.

The actual hearing took place on Wednesday with Paul Mauriac and Alain Afflelou to represent Bayonne and Arnaud Dagorne and veteran administrator Marcel Martin to represent Biarritz.

The committee took time to reflect and came up with the same sanction as it had applied to a similar incident in 2005 when Bourgoin and Agen played.