RFU Taskforce Calls for Worldwide Consensus Against Cheating

The Twickenham task force charged with investigating the English game in the wake of the Bloodgate affair today yesterday concluded that cheating was anything but endemic but still came up with 16 recommendations designed to eliminate it.

The 13-strong task force, chaired by the Rugby Football Union president, John Owen, gathered written and oral evidence from players, coaches, medics, physiotherapists and administrators to determine whether claims that the Harlequins fake blood scandal reflected a deep-rooted cheating culture carried any substance.

The majority of those who responded, including a quarter of Premiership players, were unaware of any malpractice. The minority who said it went on believed it occurred at other clubs. There was precious little concrete evidence, even after an interview with the man at the center of Bloodgate, Dean Richards.

The panel, which was given a month to carry out its investigation, found that the most common form of cheating in recent seasons at club level had been feigning injuries to front-row forwards to force uncontested scrums. That has been made more difficult in the Premiership and Heineken Cup by the need to have an extra front-rower on the bench and a penalty of playing a man short should a team force competitive scrums to cease.

The panel identified a number of loopholes in the regulations. Harlequins faked a blood injury against Leinster to get a goal-kicker back on the field, but the most common reason for a blood scam was to get a player who had suffered possible concussion off the field for examination.

The panel called on the RFU to test the idea of rolling substitutions. One of its members, the former England captain Lawrence Dallaglio, said next season's Premiership should be the test bed, but David Barnes, the Bath prop who is the chairman of the Professional Rugby Players' Association, had misgivings.

"The safety of players has to be paramount," said Dallaglio. "At the moment, medics only have 90 seconds to determine the seriousness of a head injury and that is not long enough. They should be allowed to take a player off the field and examine him properly."

Another recommendation was that the International Rugby Board should allow potential concussion victims to leave the field for 15 minutes for examination.

The wording of any regulation on rolling substitutions would need to be concise – otherwise sides could bring on props for scrums and goal-kickers for shots at goal.

"We have to be careful not to make a knee-jerk response," said Barnes. "Rolling substitutions would have a profound effect on the game potentially, not least in the front row. We only had a month to put the recommendations together and everything needs to be carefully thought out. I have spoken to the captains and players in the Premiership clubs and there is not a cheating culture. What the Harlequins affair showed is the importance of players taking a stand when asked to do something wrong. There is now a whistle blowing system in place and what is essential is that no player in the future feels he has to do something he is uncomfortable with because he is fearful of losing his job. I cannot see it happening again."

Another grey area is the use of painkilling injections on the day of a match, which is forbidden under IRB regulations. The panel recommended that the IRB allows injections to be given under certain circumstances, as the current law cannot be policed. The drugs used are not banned.

The panel acknowledged the invidious position in which the Harlequins doctor Wendy Chapman had been placed when the player who had faked a blood injury asked her to cut his lip. "Professional codes of ethics have to take priority over employee contracts," said the RFU's director of elite rugby, Rob Andrew.

Other recommendations ranged from a definition of "cheating" to be included in the RFU's regulations and guidelines needed on the amount of blood that had to be seen before a player could be substituted, to drawing up a code of conduct, improving disciplinary process and applying sanctions consistently.

"Cheating is not widespread in our game," said Owen. "The aspiration of the task force was to eliminate it … and we believe our recommendations will help achieve that. The support of the IRB and fellow unions is important to ensure all the issues are addressed on a global basis."