Dean Richards ran reign of fear at Harlequins

On the sidelines: Dean Richards has been banned from rugby for three years
13 April 2012

Dean Richards ran Harlequins with an iron fist, creating a climate of fear that left Tom Williams afraid his career at the club would be over if he didn't fake an injury in the notorious "Bloodgate" match.

Richards's reptuation, already tarnished by a three-year ban from rugby, took another hammering today as the full details were released by the ERC of Williams's successful appeal against a 12-month ban for faking the injury.

The transcript also revealed how the club attempted to persuade Williams to agree to a damage limitation approach to his appeal by offering him a new contract and a job after he retired from playing.

Williams sat in front of the disciplinary appeal hearing with Richards in the same room and lay bare the unhealthy atmosphere that the former England No8 had created.

As a result of Richards's regime, Williams claimed he had no option but to agree to bite on a joke shop blood capsule to allow Nick Evans to return to the Heineken Cup tie against Leinster in April as a blood replacement.

The decision to cheat led to Richards being banned for three years with a two-year ban for physio Steph Brennan, who handed over the capsule, and a £260,000 fine for Quins, who admitted four other incidents of faked injuries but will face no further action.

Williams said he agreed to use the capsule because he was "so programmed to Dean's authority" and insisted he had " no real choice."

His evidence leaves Richards cast as the villain, and the full back said: "If I didn't take the capsule I thought that Dean might refuse to play me again. This could spell the end of my career at Harlequins.

"There was no doubt Dean was the boss and he ran the show. I don't think I have ever seen any player challenge Dean's authority."

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