NEWS: RUGBY UNION'S Bloodgate affair claimed another victim last night when Charles Jillings resigned as the chairman of Harlequins, blaming Dean Richards for the blood capsule scandal and insisting he had not attempted to bribe Tom Williams in return for the player's silence.
Jillings, who will continue as joint owner of Quins, broke his silence after a week of turmoil at the London club following the publication of the written evidence Williams supplied to a disciplinary hearing in Glasgow last week.
The wing had appealed against a one-year ban for his part in the fake blood substitution against Leinster last April, when he bit on a capsule to simulate a mouth wound. Richards resigned as the club’s director of rugby this month before being banned for three years after admitting ordering the use of fake blood.
“Harlequins acknowledge that we failed to control Dean Richards,” said Jillings. “I trusted Dean. As a result of the board’s failure to exercise control, the club cheated. The escalation of these issues in the public domain needs, I believe, a clear response. In this context I have decided to resign as chairman and director. Ultimately this happened under my watch and the failure to control must fall at my door.”
Jillings said he is concerned about the damaging impact of Williams’s witness statement and that the first he knew of the scam was a week after Quins had been fined and Williams banned by a disciplinary panel last month.
“When I returned from holiday on August 3rd, I was faced with the full extent of the devastating revelation that we had cheated and lied in our statements. I was shocked. I sought a solution, not a cover-up, and within this framework I met with Tom Williams. An offer was made for damage concerned and was not a bribe or threat to Tom Williams.”
Jillings said Williams responded with a written proposal, through his lawyer, not to appeal. “In exchange, he was seeking a four-year contract at substantially higher levels plus an exorbitant lump sum. This I found shocking. At no time did I ask him to lie or drop his appeal.”
Meanwhile, Lawrence Dallaglio, whose reign as England captain ended in 1999 after he was caught in a tabloid honey trap, was yesterday named as one of a 13-strong task force that has been given a month to come up with measures to clean up the game in England.
The task force has been set up by the English Rugby Football Union after a summer of scandal, but Dallaglio, who this week said Harlequins had got away lightly after being fined for faking a blood substitution last season, is one of four figures on it who come from outside the RFU: the Worcester owner, Cecil Duckworth, the London Irish chairman, Andrew Coppel, and the Bath prop and Professional Rugby Union Players’ Association chairman, David Barnes are the others.
The 13 have been given terms of reference covering 11 points, including sifting through evidence of cheating in the game in the form of faked blood injuries, and other medical interventions to gain an unfair competitive advantage, and coming up with an overall detailed action plan.
“The remit is very clear,” said the RFU chief executive, Francis Baron. “The task force has been given one month because we do not want this to become a long, drawn-out affair.”
The players’ union chief, Damian Hopley, attacked the composition of the task force, chaired by the RFU president, John Owen, saying there were too many figures from the governing body. “It should be more inclusive of those involved in the professional game,” he said.
The group, which will not hold its first meeting for at least nine days, has the power to call on anyone involved in the game, and some of its recommendations may supersede some of the initiatives Premier Rugby intends to introduce into the Premiership this season.
Harlequins will have to wait until European Rugby Cup releases the rest of the judgments from last week’s appeal hearing before knowing if they will be charged by the RFU for bringing the game into disrepute. ERC could also issue fresh charges because the remit of its two hearings did not extend to the events after the Quins wing Williams left the pitch.
Guardian Service
