Gloucester identify bottle culprit

Gloucester say they have identified the person responsible for throwing a plastic bottle in the direction of referee Tim Wigglesworth at Kingsholm on Saturday
14 April 2014

Gloucester have identified the individual who threw a plastic bottle at referee Tim Wigglesworth in Saturday's stormy west country derby against Bath as a schoolboy.

The fallout from the violent Aviva Premiership clash at Kingsholm began in earnest on Monday morning when Gloucester announced the findings of an internal investigation into the incident.

Wigglesworth appeared to have a plastic bottle thrown in his direction as he walked down the players' tunnel after being escorted off the pitch once Bath had completed a last-gasp 18-17 victory.

After examining CCTV footage, it was evident that the object was thrown from the seats occupied by a group of teenage boys on an escorted rugby tour.

Gloucester will take action pending further discussions.

"The individuals were on a day out, which included watching the game, and were accompanied by their schoolteachers," a club statement read.

"The individual concerned has admitted to the act and is extremely remorseful about his actions.

"Gloucester are liaising with the club and individual with regards to appropriate action being taken.

"Gloucester Rugby would like to stress that the individual involved is neither a member nor regular supporter of the club."

Gloucester ended the game with 11 players after prop Sila Puafisi and scrum-half Tavis Knoyle were sent off following separate incidents of foul play and centre Mike Tindall and hooker Huia Edmonds had been sin-binned.

Knoyle was dismissed after throwing punches at Leroy Houston during the dying minutes while Puafisi had been sent off 25 minutes earlier for a dangerous high tackle on Nick Abendanon.

Bath also had three players yellow-carded - Carl Fearns, Matt Garvey and Dave Attwood - before claiming victory with a converted 79th-minute penalty try, while a second-half decision by Wigglesworth to go to uncontested scrums also sparked controversy.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in