Harlequins coach Tony Diprose does not believe his team will receive abuse from opposing players over 'Bloodgate' because they know it could have been them in the dock.

The club's reputation is in tatters following the scandal, which has seen former director of rugby Dean Richards banned for three years and physio Steph Brennan for two. Harlequins were also fined £259,000 over Tom Willliams's fake blood injury, which was used to engineer a late substitution in a Heineken Cup tie with Leinster.

The RFU are investigating claims of four other cases of fake injuries involving Quins but Diprose says people would be naive to think they were the only club to have done this, while chief executive Mark Evans believes 'cheating' in rugby is a problem.

Diprose said: "I think there will be a feeling from other teams of 'There but by the grace of God go we'.

"People would be naive to think that things like this have not happened before and had it not been for this case would probably have carried on.

"In the same way people would have been naive to think that Matt Stevens was the only player to have a substance problem, as has been proven."

Diprose is not worried, though, if rivals use the controversy to try and rile his team. "If anyone does give us any stick then I think the players have thick enough skin to deal with it and the coaching team certainly has even thicker skin.

"But the focus for us is what we do on the pitch and we are trying to improve on last year, we did very well last year so it will be tough."

Evans believes Quins were made an example of by the European Rugby Cup appeals committee to act as a warning to other clubs they suspect of cheating.

He said: "There is a feeling among certain regulatory bodies that the whole area around substitutions, uncontested scrums, sin bins and blood replacements is a really grey area and really hard to police and really easy to exploit.

"I think it is fair to say that when a very high profile case came along they were going to punish it very hard."

The Harlequins chief is determined to make sure that there is no repeat of any similar instance in the future but claims the boundaries between right and wrong in the sport are not clear-cut.

Evans - speaking at a supporters' meeting at The Twickenham Stoop attended by more than 200 members and season ticket holders as well as the entire first team squad - said: "In football you might have a player, who makes the most of a challenge to win a free kick, that is 'cheating'. At the other end of the scale you have bribing the officials, as happened in Italy, that is also cheating on a bigger scale and in between those two extremes there is a mixture of offences.

"I do not think there is a team in any kind of sport at any level that will take to the field and not try and take advantage of any situation. It is human nature.

"When you go up the scale you push the rules to the line and then there are other instances that are way over the line. We did wrong and have admitted that and it was then up to others to determine where on that scale we fit."