The Rugby Bloodgate Scandal

Ok I do not hide my absolute love of Rugby.

Both codes in fact.

I refer to this story here that I posted last month.

Remember I said that the coaching and team management where found to be innocent.

Well guess what???????? Somone blew the whistle and the whole dirty sordid story came out.

Well yesterday in Glasgow, Dean Richards's rugby career lay in tatters. He was banned for three years from participation in the European game for orchestrating a systematic cheating regime that saw Harlequins fake blood injuries on at least five separate occasions.

Richards received the swingeing ban after a 14-hour European Rugby Cup hearing at which Tom Williams, the wing who had been suspended for 12 months for taking a fake blood capsule onto the field in the Heineken Cup quarter-final against Leinster last April, changed his evidence.

Williams revealed details of how Richards and physio Steph Brennan, now employed by the England team, colluded to fake a blood injury in the game and then orchestrated a cover-up.

Williams alleged that, he was cut in the mouth by a club official as part of an attempt to make real the fake injury. The identity of the individual he named will be made public when the ERC committee publishes its full judgment.

Brennan was banned for two years from participation in all European rugby after pleading guilty and admitting his role in the cover-up. He will now almost certainly be sacked by the RFU.

In exchange for exposing the extent of the deception at Harlequins, Williams had his original ban reduced to four months. Harlequins escaped a Heineken Cup ban but had their original fine of €250,000, half of which was suspended, increased to €300,000 (£258,000) with none suspended.

Williams’s ban applies to rugby worldwide and expires on Nov 19, while the bans handed down to Brennan and Richards apply to European-affiliated competitions only, but the ERC will urge unions worldwide to adopt the suspensions.

ERC appeal committee chairman Rod McKenzie said details of four other occasions on which Harlequins had attempted to fake injuries had been passed to the relevant authorities.

SO THIS WAS THE 5th BLODDY TIME HE DID THIS.

Richards said he accepted responsibility for the blood-capsule incident but professed ignorance of the cut administered to the wing.


Williams was at the back end of a good career so at least he can finish with a bit of respectability.
But as for Richards.

A disgrace.
A glittering career at Leicester Tigers, a formidable forward in his playing days, and now reduced to a cheat. A man who shamed the name of the game and reduced 1 of the worlds most famous clubs to a humiliating season end.

The thing that further annoys me is that his ban is Europe only.
He could still get a job in another rugby giant of a country.
South Africa
Australia
Kikwi's
Toga
Samoa
Fiji
or an emerging nation with high aspirations like the USA for eg.

So I urge the other countries if you wanna be a success do it of your own free will and accord............do it by your own ability. If you dont make it never mind, you at least did not cheat to get there.
Bugger off Richards, 3 years aint long enough...........tosser!