Quins fined £215k, Tom Williams banned for a year.

[puffmullett]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_u ... 044453.stm

[Avenger]

12 month ban for Williams is harsh IMO. It was clearly a tactic and its the coach who should be punished and not the player.

[El Diablo]

12 month ban for Williams is harsh IMO. It was clearly a tactic and its the coach who should be punished and not the player.

WOW...that is harsh. I have never heard of a 12 month ban before.

[Dave Cahill]

12 month ban for Williams is harsh IMO. It was clearly a tactic and its the coach who should be punished and not the player.

WOW...that is harsh. I have never heard of a 12 month ban before.

When you consider that Quinlan only got 8 weeks...

[puffmullett]

12 months for following orders & winking! The coaches & Doctor were aquitted for "similar or identical charges"

[Scott]

Jezz no messing around with that. & it's a pretty hefty fine to boot

[Danthefan]

Fuppin' hell. Banning Williams seems very harsh imo, I seriously doubt it was his idea.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_u ... 044453.stm

Harlequins have been hit by a massive £215,000 fine for fabricating an injury to their winger Tom Williams in last season's Heineken Cup quarter-final.

Williams, who has been suspended for 12 months, came off the field in Quins' 6-5 defeat by Leinster on 12 April.

His departure, ostensibly for a blood injury, allowed Quins to bring specialist goalkicker Nick Evans back on the field for the last few minutes.

Half of Quins' fine has been suspended for two years.

The club have the right of appeal against European Rugby Cup's judgement.

Fly-half Evans departed injured in the 47th minute, before his replacement at number 10 Chris Malone was also helped off hurt.

Evans then reappeared after Williams' exit, with television footage appearing to show Williams winking as he left the pitch.

With the match on a knife-edge, Evans had a late attempt at a drop-goal to put Quins into the semi-finals - but his effort was wide of the posts.

"It was the view of the committee that this was a very serious offence and one that damaged the reputation of the tournament and of rugby union," read a statement from ERC.

"Accordingly the committee imposed a fine of 250,000 euros (£215,000) on Harlequins, of which 50% is suspended for two years.

"The committee also suspended Mr Williams from playing rugby for a period of 12 months up to and including 19, July 2010."

Harlequins director of rugby Dean Richards plus two members of the club's medical team - physiotherapist Steph Brennan and Dr Wendy Chapman - had misconduct complaints dismissed.

More to follow.

[dingbat]

Kudos for the large fine, but by choosing to ban Williams while letting the coaching staff off they're leaving themselves open to criticism for no good reason.

[sarah_lennon]

Yep. Seems very harsh on TW and lenient on Quins.

Heaven knows what would have happened had they won . .

Edit: Actually you know what I've changed my mind. They obviously couldn't prove who gave it to him, Richards and the medics had complaints dismissed. It was in Williams mouth and it shouldn't have been.

[tackle-bag]

Haha, take that you cheating scumbags!!!

[paddyj]

something wrong with this - the player will only have been doing what the coach\manager wanted - clearly he's been hung out to dry by Richards and co. who've refused to come clean and he's been let tke the rap - what would they be doing if Evans had scored the drop goal?

[rex banner]

Quins have gotten off lightly. He should plea bargain and rat out the instigators in the management setup for a more lenient sentance.

[[Jackass]]

I'm very happy with this. But I don't think it goes far enough.

Quins should be thrown out of Europe for it also.

The good thing is the financial strain this will put on the club will make teams think twice about the risks involved in cheating and if it's really worth it and also the 12 month ban is very apt as, although it makes Williams somewhat of a scape goat, he cheated and deserves a long long ban, and it will make players think twice about following orders to cheat again, but more importantly, will make it very difficult to give the order to a player to cheat when they know what risk they are putting their career in.

Hope it sticks anyway, and I'm very happy with the discipline process....look at what this would have robbed us of.....and the mayhem that would have insued if the drop goal went over and Leinster were appealing the validity of the result....and what would have happened if the tournament went on as normal, Leinster would probably be taking legal action after the findings of the comitee to have the result annulled, Munster would probably be taking legal action to hold on to a 3rd Heineken Cup, just absolute chaos....

Nice and hefty.......but just fell short of proper punishment for not throwing them out of the competition also.

[rooster]

I'm very happy with this. But I don't think it goes far enough.

Quins should be thrown out of Europe for it also.

The good thing is the financial strain this will put on the club will make teams think twice about the risks involved in cheating and if it's really worth it and also the 12 month ban is very apt as, although it makes Williams somewhat of a scape goat, he cheated and deserves a long long ban, and it will make players think twice about following orders to cheat again, but more importantly, will make it very difficult to give the order to a player to cheat when they know what risk they are putting their career in.

Hope it sticks anyway, and I'm very happy with the discipline process....look at what this would have robbed us of.....and the mayhem that would have insued if the drop goal went over and Leinster were appealing the validity of the result....and what would have happened if the tournament went on as normal, Leinster would probably be taking legal action after the findings of the comitee to have the result annulled, Munster would probably be taking legal action to hold on to a 3rd Heineken Cup, just absolute chaos....

Nice and hefty.......but just fell short of proper punishment for not throwing them out of the competition also.

You saved me a good bit of typing with that summery Jackass, agree that Quins should have got chucked out of all ERC competitions for this coming season as a warning to others.

[ceemec]

Think some sort of action in relation to Quins in Europe this season would have been a better decision. That said, perhaps the committee are limited to certain sanctions. A points deduction or even being demoted to the Challenge Cup would have been more deserved rather than hammering Williams who was following orders. An 8 week ban for him would have sufficed with Richards and the physio also serving bans. I don't think people should underestimate the severity of their actions. They placed the entire tournament's outcome in jeopardy and showed no respect to the competition or their opponents. Throw the book at them. Glad to see that they were found guilty and a ban of large proportions was handed out. Whatever about Williams being the fall guy his punishment ensures that it will be far harder to convince a player to do the same in future.

EDIT: Just saw half the fine is suspended. Not so hefty now. Williams seems to take the major brunt of this.

[buMed]

Hey all,

I'm one of those long time readers but first time posters. I know William's brother quite well and from what he's told me, Tom was told to "bite down on the inside of your mouth, as hard as you can" - pretty much what everyone suspected really. Knowing this, it's ludicrous that Dean Richards and the medical team got away with it all. Did they really think that it was all Tom Williams' idea?!

[Donny B.]

Bullshit!!

[christy]

I'm delighted but in my opinion Quins should have been kicked out of European competitions for a couple of seasons. I hope to god this will cut this cr@p out of rugby for good

[buMed]

Bullshit!!

100% truth mate. I'm not bullshitting.

[Donny B.]

Bullshit!!

100% truth mate. I'm not bullshitting.

I believe you Son, just don't agree with it!

Williams gets the brunt while the c**t Deano who thought it up gets away scot free,

Disgraceful!!!