Gonzalo Quesada, head coach of the Italy national rugby team, will miss Saturday's Nations Championship game against Australia in Perth on 18 July. The Italian coach has been handed a one-match suspension and a formal warning by an independent World Rugby Disciplinary Committee for criticising match officials after the defeat to New Zealand.
The sanction stems from an automatic process. Under World Rugby's new Match Official Abuse Sanction Process, introduced this month, public criticism of referees carries an automatic two-match ban. Quesada received the provisional suspension after questioning referee Luc Ramos and the officiating team following the yellow card, later upgraded to red, shown to lock Niccolò Cannone for a head-butt. Italy finished the final half-hour with 14 men and lost 47-17 to the All Blacks in Wellington on 11 July.
The Argentine coach opted to refer the matter to an independent misconduct hearing. The panel, Jennifer Donovan (Ireland), Wang Shao-Ing (Singapore) and Valeriu Toma (Romania), found the misconduct threshold had been met but reduced the ban to a single match, alongside a public apology and a formal warning. In reaching its decision, the committee took into account Quesada's private written apology to Ramos and his acceptance that his conduct fell short of the standard expected of someone in his position.