LEICESTER TIGERS HEAD coach Geordan Murphy has been hit with a three-game ban for verbally abusing match officials, the Rugby Football Union (RFU) has announced.
Ex-Ireland international Murphy accepted two charges brought against him following the Tigers’ final-day 32-31 Premiership defeat to Bath on 18 May.
An RFU statement said the punishment will come into effect for the “first three meaningful games of the 2019-2020 season”, while he will also pay a £1,500 fine to a charity selected by the RFU Elite Referees Department.
In addition, Murphy must write a letter of apology to referee Sean Davey – who was the TMO – and copy in the other officials for the game, and write an open letter to Leicester players and staff to say sorry.
RFU judicial officer Jeremy Summers said via the statement: “While the disappointment of the club’s season is well known, criticising the TMO as Mr Murphy did was both wholly unacceptable and entirely inconsistent with the values of the game.
“Unfortunately match officials continue to be subject to improper attack, and those that find themselves before disciplinary panels in respect of such conduct should expect to be sanctioned appropriately.”
The Tigers finished 11th in the Premiership after winning just seven of their 22 matches.
Gavan Casey is joined by Murray Kinsella and Sean Farrell for a review of the 2018/19 season, and cast an eye forward to next year and the Rugby World Cup in Japan.:
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Soccer always attracts the best
@John O Reilly: Turkey are a cut above.
@John O Reilly: soccer is a game for all, the rich, the poor and everyone in between. It’s not elitist and is representative of society as a whole, as all sports should be. This incident is representative of our society not soccer fans in general.
@GrumpyAulFella: it’s called football,generally it’s country people & Gaa heads who call it soccer…..FIFA UEFA don’t have the name soccer attached to them
@Tony Doyle: it’s the English themselves who coined the term soccer. People can it whatever they want. Your “country people (whatever that means) and GAA heads” quip is quite nonsensical.
@Tony Doyle: Wrong. It’s not called football. It’s called association football which is where the word soccer comes from and both FIFA and uefa have the word association in their names. It’s not just country people and gaa heads, as you so unintelligently put it, that call it that. It’s called that in other countries as well like the USA and Australia to distinguish it from the likes of American football or Aussie Rules Football in the same way it’s used here to differentiate it from Gaelic football. If anything soccer is a more correct term than just football as it’s derived from the sport’s proper name
@Mark Jay: Correct. Specifically it was students in Oxford who used the terms soccer and rugger to differentiate between association and rugby football
Very unlike the Turkish fans.
Have no interest in any team who supports putin. Fans or club’s.
Disgusting.
It takes a special kind of person to stoop to a level that low. Soccer fans get their moment in the spotlight. Can’t really say it was only a small percent in this case
They are some soulless people in the world unfortunately and this is an example.
Jayyyysus
Strange war if football players don’t have to sign up. Just asking…
@John Smith: perhaps they’re the morale booster the troops need? Something to tune into outside of the war, just saying…
I don’t think there are very many critical thinkers among the readership here.
What would you expect from a pig but a grunt?!
Do you know why the war started?
Gh,
@David Hughes: Well said
@mcdb06: and thanks to you I will be forever in your debt
G
I guess we are all Fenerbache fans now
@JustBEERbarry: don’t you mean Dynamo??
Gh
meh… Kiev still won…. They (the chanting fans) were just showing themselves up as sore losers
Igno rant fules. Likely to be perceived as toxic. And rightly so.
Turkish fans chose right side. Any respect from tolerant Europe?