Richards admits ban has effectively ended career

FORMER Harlequins director of rugby Dean Richards admits his career in the sport has effectively been ended by his three-year ban for masterminding the Bloodgate scandal.

The most successful coach in English club rugby during the professional era believes he has been punished too harshly for faking a blood injury during last season’s Heineken Cup quarter-final against Leinster.

The 46-year-old is dismayed by his treatment by rugby’s authorities and fears the length of his ban will prevent him from returning to the game.

“There is still a part of me that is angry about things that have gone on,” he said.

“I need to let the dust settle. People ask me, ‘Will you come back to rugby?’

“To come back from a year out, it would be hard but you’d have a good chance. Two years, you are dead and buried.

“If I find something else that works for me, I won’t come back because this is not the game I signed up to 10 or 15 years ago.

“I don’t know if I’d want to come back to the game. The way this has been handled, I’ve lost a lot of faith in the system.

“Various people used the media to leak and drip-feed evidence into the public domain. They did that to maximise the hurt to me and others.

“I believe the ban is too long, disproportionate, but I was always going to be punished.

“One definite is that I’ve got to keep putting food on the table for my family.”

The scandal began when winger Tom Williams bit on a blood capsule in order to allow Nick Evans, who had already been substituted, back onto the pitch.

The ensuing revelations of Richards’ attempted cover-up that emerged during the disciplinary process have significantly damaged the reputation of the former England number eight, Harlequins and rugby.

But Richards, who questions Williams’ motives for saying he lived in fear of him, claims cheating is widespread.

“Blood capsules, cutting of players, false blood on rags, faked front row injuries – all have gone on in the game,” he said.

“I’ve had a number of directors of rugby who have rung me up and said ‘Sorry to hear what’s happened to you mate.’

“Then they’ve probably gone straight to the cupboards and cleared out all the blood capsules!

“I would imagine that on every Guinness Premiership weekend last season there would have been blood-bin incidents. It does happen.

“I am sure other coaches would have been thinking ‘There but for the grace of God go I’.”

Richards also hit out at the “manipulation” of the long-running saga, adding that fallen Quins chairman Charles Jillings was the biggest victim of the presentation of the story.

“The manipulation of this story has been awful, and it’s been done by ERC and others. I’ve seen a lot of things I thought I would never see in rugby.

“The biggest sadness in all of this was Charles Jillings leaving the club. He should never have been involved in this, I feel sorry for him. He’s probably the most honourable guy I’ve met in rugby.”