Any deliberate finger/hand/thumb contact with the eye region, of any circumstance (raking, gouging, whatever) should be a minimum of 6 months based on the accountof the victim, and the accused and the video/ref evidence. If it is deemed that the offence is much more serious than that, i.e the repeated action and clear and deliberate intent to injure, then the player should have another 3 months. If the player has history of the offence they shall get an extra month for every past infringement, so the total maximum ban would be for around 12 months for the typical serial offender with form, doing it to deliberately injure.
I have been gouged/gored, in the guise of a hand-off, that was junior rugby and i tell you, when some prick decides he's gonna literally stab you in the eye with his fingernail, you won't ever feel there is a ban that is too long. All i did was match him for pace, and he really couldn't accept that as much as he was a better player, he couldn't beat me with pace, so he did that.
It's rugby's equivalent of the deliberate studs-up two-footed challenge in poofball.
