Comments on: Harlequins await European Cup verdict

By: Rob Watson

Rob Watson — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 23:10:58 +0000

Holy crap have you seen the news?:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sol/ukfs_sport/mobile/newsid_8190000/newsid_8191300/8191371.stm?psdata=11_3_g8_4__MG9_10_gCD11__CKDH12_14_

Harsh but fair I’m afraid and it restores my faith in rugby as a sport that practices good discipline. Very very sad that Deano has stooped so low after such a good coaching career to date, but he only has himself to blame.

And the lesson of it all – they didn’t even win the bloody game!

By: James

James — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:34:23 +0000

Still no word on the outcome of this, so it looks like we won’t hear until tomorrow. News here as soon as there is any…

By: Spike

Spike — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 13:08:40 +0000

The plot thickens…!

I had to check the calendar to see it wasn’t April 1st again! What a ridiculously far-fetched story…and it might yet prove true.

By: Justin

Justin — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 09:29:45 +0000

The recent turn of events, with Williams apparently ready to tell all, may be the result of shrewd work by ERC. Whilst most on these Rugby Blog pages have lambasted the 12-month ban for Williams as being too harsh, it seems that ERC have played a clever hand: obviously the evidence available from the inquest was only able to implicate Williams. They knew others higher up the management chain were involved, but could not prove it. So what to do: slap an extensive ban on the player, leaving him with the option of either sitting out one of the pinnacle seasons of his career….OR come clean and share the whole truth, which it is being reported is what he will do.

Perhaps the draconian and inconsistent punishments we’ve seen are more relevant than we’ve given credit for (though the disparity in the bans to Matt Stevens and Justin Harrison still dumfounds me).