Filed under: Rugby Union, Premiership, England Rugby
Strange things are afoot at the RFU. Manu Tuilagi was not only told his left-left-right combination on Northampton's Chris Ashton in the Premiership semi-final was "damaging to the image of the game", but also that if he'd have tried it in a pub carpark he may be facing a spell inside.So what did they do? They handed him a 10-week ban, then halved it because of "mitigating circumstances", namely that Ashton had pushed him. Hard to imagine a judge halving a sentence for GBH because the defendant implores "but he pushed me, your honour".
Leicester Tigers centre Tuilagi will miss the Premiership final as well as being denied the chance to impress England manager Martin Johnson ahead of the World Cup warm-up Tests because he will sit out the Saxons' Churchill Cup campaign.
RFU disciplinary officer Judge Jeff Blackett said of the ruling: "This sort of incident is very damaging to the image of the game and there is no place for this type of offending on the rugby pitch.
"Had it occurred in the high street an offender would have been prosecuted in the criminal courts. Nevertheless, we are confident that Manu Tuilagi will learn a valuable lesson from this."
Blackett needs to answer his own implied question: why did an assault on a rugby pitch, at a packed Welford Road and in front of many thousands of TV viewers not warrant a criminal charge, when if he had been caught on CCTV committing such an offence on a deserted street he'd have been hauled in front of the beak?
The RFU refuse to comment, claiming the decision of a disciplinary committee is final. Which does nothing to help them in their drive to boost participation in the game, which is falling at grass-roots level.
The drop in players led Sport England reduce their funding to the RFU by over £1 million earlier this month, after what they saw as the "failure to reach the agreed growth in the sport". And if incidents like Tuilagi's are punished relatively lightly, new converts will be thin on the ground.
Any parent who watches a professional player - a representative of his adopted country, no less - thump three bells out of a potential England team-mate will be less than enthusiastic about sending their son or daughter to play for their local team.
As Northampton director of rugby Jim Mallinder said: "It's a tough game - it's hard, it's physical, but you can't have that going on, whether for a fourth team at the Old Boys' Club, or the semi-final of the Premiership.'
But if the RFU continue to allow players at the top to get off lightly following acts of thuggery, there is the chance that it will go on and on - at whatever level.
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