Veteran Italy scrum-half Alessandro Troncon believes a disciplinary committee decision to ban Mauro Bergamasco following a charge of unsporting conduct was little more than a measure to appease Wales.
Bergamasco received a four-week ban on Tuesday for punching Stephen Jones during last weekend's 23-20 Six Nations triumph against Wales, a game marred by controversy at the death.
Referee Chris White angered the Welsh camp by blowing the full-time whistle despite indicating to the players they had enough time to take one final line-out.
Wales had just spurned the opportunity to kick a penalty to level the scores in order to go for a match-winning try.
Troncon said: "I haven't seen the replay \[of the punch] but considering what happened in the last minutes of the game and the subsequent controversies, I believe that in order to keep the Welsh happy the judges have decided on this punishment."
The result marked Italy's second consecutive victory in the tournament after their win against Scotland at Murrayfield, but the loss of Bergamasco has tempered the mood in the Italy camp, with the flanker now ruled out of Saturday's final game against Ireland.
Troncon added: "In the end, it doesn't matter because we won the game. The only disappointment is that we will not have him available against Ireland, but we will overcome his absence."
Meanwhile, Stade Francais centre Mirco Bergamasco has revealed his elder brother had hoped the disciplinary committee would take a sympathetic view of the incident.
He said: "He \[Mauro] really hoped to avoid suspension. Simply because it wasn't an intentional foul."
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