Former Harlequins rugby director Dean Richards was banned from coaching for three years by an independent European Rugby Cup (ERC) disciplinary committee in Glasgow on Monday.
The ban, imposed after nearly 14 hours deliberation, for Richards’ role in Harlequins’ “bloodgate” row, applies to European competitions.
But the ERC will request that, in line with standard rugby union policy, it applies worldwide.
Monday’s hearing revealed that there had been four previous occasions in non-ERC tournaments when Richards and team physio Steph Brennan had fabricated a wound or blood injury.
Tom Williams, the player at the center of the scandal, saw Monday’s hearing reduce his 12-month playing ban to four months.
Brennan, now working for the Rugby Football Union, England’s national governing body, was banned from European competitions for two years after admitting his part in the affair on Monday.
But team doctor Wendy Chapman, cleared at the initial hearing, saw a three-man panel, chaired by Scotland’s Rod McKenzie, take no action against her because it said it lacked jurisdiction under the rules in this case.
English Premiership side Harlequins saw their fine increased from 250,000 euros (US$352,850) to 300,000 euros. This is now to be paid in full by Dec. 1 after 50 percent of the initial fine was suspended.
Ex-England No 8 Richards resigned as Quins boss last week following the fall-out from the incident where Williams used fake blood during a European Cup quarter-final against eventual champions Leinster on April 12 to create the appearance of a cut in his mouth in order to allow a substitute onto the field.
“I had to hold my hands up,” Richards, who also played for the British and Irish Lions, said after Monday’s hearing.
Meanwhile Williams, free to resume playing on Nov. 20, apologized and said he hoped his case would serve as a warning to other players.
Reading from a statement, the 25-year-old said: “I sincerely regret the role that I’ve played in this unacceptable incident that has done so much damage to the image of rugby union. I let down my team-mates and the club’s fans, and I’ll have to live with those actions for the rest of my career.”
“In deciding to come clean and do the right thing, I’ve tried honestly to rectify this mess and repay the good faith shown in me by my friends and family,” he said.
The winger, who thanked the panel for reducing his ban, added: “However, I also realize the grave error of judgment that I have made.”
The winger went on: “I hope that, as a result of this episode, no player or employee will ever be put in such a compromised position, and if they are then they will always tell the truth, as I had wish I had done from the outset. It is now my desire to draw a line under this matter and return to training alongside my team-mates and friends at Harlequins and make a meaningful contribtution to restoring the tarnished image of the club.”
An ERC statement issued after Monday’s hearing said Williams’ ban had been reduced after the player’s new evidence revealed the roles played by Richards and Brennan in fabricating the blood injury, as well as disclosing details of the subsequent cover-up.
Williams was banned last month by an initial ERC hearing which cleared Richards, Chapman and Brennan.
But the verdicts on the three officials were challenged by ERC disciplinary officer Roger O’Connor while Williams appealed against his ban.
One saving grace for Quins was the committee’s decision not to expel them from next season’s European Cup.
A Harlequins statement issued on Monday said: “Whilst the club are pleased that Tom Williams’ ban has been reduced, we feel this is a very significant penalty in terms of a fine. We will now continue with our internal review into all aspects of the business to ensure that we have the most stringent compliance and robust policies and processes in place throughout the club and work towards rebuilding our reputation on and off the field.”
Richards, 46, who guided Leicester, the club where he made his name as a player, to two European Cups and four English titles before being sacked in 2004, helped Quins bounce back from relegation to English rugby’s second tier to runners-up last term in the Premiership’s regular season.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier