Bloodgate was brazen – with comic moments

Brendan Gallagher continues his enthralling series by looking at rugby’s biggest scandals

1. Bloodgate (2009)

Scandals come and go but this is the one that still resonates, a strange mix of out-and-out cheating in the heat of battle with the hint of an old school prank that nearly worked and even a few comic elements although it all got very serious once Quins’ wrong-doing was discovered.

Quins were trailing 6-5 at home to Leinster in a Heineken Cup quarterfinal – their biggest game in the modern era – and they needed to get ace goal kicker and drop-goal merchant Nick Evans back on after he had come off in the 47th minute with a thigh strain. Even on one leg, he could still win them the match. So when replacement fly-half Chris Malone also went off injured word went out from Dean Richards that Tom Williams needed to go down injured. Physio Steve Brennan attended and passed on a couple of fake blood capsules, purchased from a joke shop at Clapham Junction. At the hearing, it was claimed Quins had pulled this stunt on at least four occasions.

Williams bit into the capsule and suddenly blood was pouring from his mouth as if he had been ten rounds with Mike Tyson. He departed with an idiotic stage wink which the TV cameras caught and Leinster were jumping up and down sensing some nonsense. Nor did the fact that they won the game mollify them in any way.