Following the huge disappointment in their final game of the season; a Champions Cup Play-off lost to Bordeaux Bègles, Gloucester had another end of season shock when they were docked two points for fielding an ineligible player. This followed the original ruling that the points deduction would be suspended, alongside an immediate £5000 fine. Fortunately this had no impact on their league position in the Aviva Premiership as they finished eight points clear of their nearest rivals London Irish in tenth place. It is therefore hard to see why this punishment was brought forward following an appeal by the RFU on the grounds that the circumstances were not exceptional enough to justify the suspension.
Gloucester’s Points Deduction
There have been a number of points deductions in previous years, with the Sale Sharks, Exeter Chiefs and Bristol among others found guilty of the indiscretion. It was also the case here that the deduction of either one or two points had no meaningful impact on the clubs’ final league position. Of course this does not mean that a punishment should not be applied; a signal has to be sent to other clubs that the rules regardless of the circumstances. However this punishment for Gloucester seems rather harsh when compared objectively with other cases.
Most notably London Welsh were docked five points and fined £15000 in 2012-13 when they falsified documents for scrum-half Tyson Keats, although this did have an impact on the club’s eventual relegation that season. In comparison the Gloucester case boiled down to an administrative error relating to the registration of Mariano Galarza. This means that the authorities have judged deliberate misleading behaviour as only three times worse (in terms of financial penalty) than human error where no competitive advantage was gained.
Furthermore Gloucester’s punishment is the same in both financial and points terms as that applied to Exeter in 2010-2011, which was levied when they had more than two overseas players in their matchday squad. Those of us who see the rugby world through Cherry and White tinted glasses can therefore rightly feel slightly conflicted about this outcome. It is consistent with previous (reasonably) comparable cases, but nonetheless that benchmark seems rather high for cases of administrative error.
So what are we to think? Given an investigation into alleged breaches of the salary cap have been suspended, for which the lowest punishment is a four point deduction, it calls into question the priorities the authorities have and the behaviour they want to discourage. Gloucester’s official response stated “there is no point revisiting the reasons why we feel this is unduly harsh, but can only hope that the reasons were fact based and not due to pressure from other parties”. With the talks about potentially ring-fencing the league and calls from certain clubs to raise or remove the salary cap, it is worrying that in the future; if there is no threat of relegation, behaviour that may be happening now will not be discouraged until it is too late to apply meaningful sanctions.
In the meantime Gloucester can be happy that this has not affected their league position and that there is no potential of the sanction being applied in the next few seasons, when they may be fighting for league position higher up the table. Though they, and others around the league, will be wary of the precedent that is being set.
“Main Photo”
http://www.foxsports.com.au/rugby/jerry-collins-george-gregan-and-toutai-kefu-pay-emotional-tributes-to-late-all-black-legend/story-e6frf4pu-1227385359654
