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Dean Richards, the disgraced former Harlequins director of rugby, ordered club physio Steph Brennan to buy a packet of blood capsules from a Clapham joke shop to enable players to fake injuries, setting in motion a series of disastrous events that have ruined the club's image and his own career, a hearing was told.
And at the same hearing into Bloodgate Williams claimed that club chairman Charles Jillings and Mark Evans, the chief executive, offered compensation if he agreed to make a "limited" appeal that would protect the club by not revealing the complete details.
These offers revolved around compensation for his 12-month ban and up to four years as a new playing contract and the offer of employment with Quins after he retired.
Williams claimed Evans implied to his solicitor that undertaking a full appeal would hurt the club financially in terms of a Heineken Cup ban and relegation leading to possible redundancies. He said this would be regarded as Williams responsibility and he would be seen by others at the club as the person responsible.
The player, when considering the club's offer to limit his appeal to help restrict the damage Quins would suffer, asked for an apology, a contract extention and for the mortgage to be paid on the home he shared with his girlfriend. He also revealed there had been a meeting with the other Quins players who also asked him to go for the limited appeal option, the club line.
Richards has been banned for three years, Brennan for two and full-back Tom Williams for four months with the club fined £259,000 for using the fake blood capsule in a Heineken Cup match against Leinster that ensured the whole ludicrous idea would end in pain.
With Leinster officials yelling at Williams that the blood wasn't "real" he asked club doctor Wendy Chapman to cut the inside of his lip with a scalpel, a charge that Chapman was not able to defend in the appeal hearing that saw Williams's ban reduced as he blew the lid on the murky world of fake injuries at Quins. Amid the portrait of Richards as a man to be feared and whose authority could not be questioned, are elements of farce.
Willliams admits that when he was handed the fake blood capsule on the pitch by Brennan he put it in his sock and then pulled it out after a contact situation and tried to bite on it. The capsule fell out of his mouth, forcing him to pick it up and and try the whole process again in full view of the sold-out stadium and television cameras.
Williams claimed Brennan had urged him to "do the right thing" with the capsule. The pantomime nature of the incident continued in the medical rooms under the stand with Williams and Dr Chapman initially having to avoid the gaze of doubting officials and find a room where they could cut his lip. A picture was taken of the cut which was neatly done and did not require any stitches.
The full details of the Williams appeal were released by European rugby officials today and will make sad reading for anyone who idolised Richards, the former England and Lions No8 who enjoyed huge success on and off the pitch with Leicester.
Williams portrays the former director of rugby as a man to be feared at Quins and the major force behind what has turned out to be five seperate cases of faked injuries during his time in charge. Quins will not face any further punishment despite those other incidents.
The player admitted he lied but insists that was because he felt he need to "tow the party line", as his legal advisor told the hearing, and his evidence claims that Quins wanted him to limit the scope of the appeal in a bid to minimise the chances of the club being thrown out of the Heineken Cup.
