Did Harlequins and Tom Williams get what they deserved?
The heart of the problem here is a basic failure of responsibility, of fundamental commitment to rugby. Sportsmanship, if you will. It simply was more important to “Quins to win the game than to play fairly. This is what it comes down to in a professional sport with major money (at least over the course of the whole tournament) at stake. Should Williams be accountable? Of course he should: he’s a grown man, well acquainted, one would hope, with the concepts of right and wrong. Should Williams alone be accountable? Ridiculous. No way on the face of the earth was this his sole doing. FRF is 100% correct. Now, where’s the integrity in the others? I expected better of Dean Richards. This is a much greater threat to the game than is Schalk Burger’s madness, which is not predicated on a premeditated approach to manipulating the result of a game. How about penalizing the Club in some way that really hurts: say a deduction in points for next season (at a levelthat threatens demotion) ; a ban f
