Williams wants changes to disciplinary measures

LEINSTER coach Matt Williams is spearheading a call for changes in European Cup Rugby disciplinary measures.

Fuming after the injury suffered by Gordon D’Arcy against Montferrand in the Heineken Cup last weekend, Williams insists ERC Ltd should make immediate plans to introduce independent citing procedures for the players’ protection.

“There is a perception that by not citing the French player, we have left this issue behind us. We most certainly have not, and will be pursuing the introduction of new rules to make sure that neither ourselves or any other club in the competition have to go through what we did.”

Williams insisted Leinster wished to proceed with the citing but decided against it only because legal opinion suggested the case would not stand up, despite video evidence which suggested otherwise.

“We had a situation last week where the citing commissioner admitted he had not seen the incident involving Gordon because he was taking notes at the time.

“Our information was he was not in a position to study video evidence and make a citing himself. That, we were told, was up to us.

“This is a crazy situation and I cannot see any reason why ERC rules should not be the same as those in the Super 12 competition. There is an independent citing commissioner at all matches in that tournament and they have the power to cite people as needs be.

“Here, in what is surely a world-class competition, individual teams have to take on responsibility for that themselves and, as we have found out, there is virtually no way of succeeding unless you can prove beyond any doubt that there was intent.

“I have a duty to protect my players and ERC have a responsibility to do exactly the same for every player involved in the tournament.

“Initially, we feared that Gordon D’Arcy had broken his pelvis. Happily that was not the case and the injury is not as serious as we feared.

“We have this duty to the players to be seen not to look soft in relation to foul play. It’s a physical game and people take knocks. The players expect that but they don’t expect to become victims of foul play and certainly don’t expect nothing to be done about it

“We have had to sit down and carefully explain to the players, particularly to Gordon, why this matter is not being pursued. They didn’t like it but have had to accept it.

“What I am saying now is that ERC should take quick action to ensure that something like this doesn’t happen again, or if it does that the injured player has some recourse.

“It’s a tough enough game without guys having to wonder if they are going to be victims of assault. If that happens to anyone, they must know that there is a chance of justice.”