It’s the Last 16 of the Investec Champions Cup this weekend with Europe’s top teams going head-to-head as they look to make it through to next month’s final in Cardiff.
With several huge clashes taking place on Saturday, it can be hard to know where to focus, but one game that has drawn my eye is Leinster’s meeting with Harlequins this afternoon. It’s a fixture with a bit of history, after all.
Most rugby fans would still be able to tell you the story of ‘Bloodgate’, which happened when the two sides met for the first time 16 years ago. It’s also the subject of a recent BBC podcast, but in case you’re unfamiliar, as the referee at The Stoop that day, let me quickly bring you up to speed.
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Heading into the final five minutes of the tight match, Harlequins were losing 6-5 to Leinster and needed to get a specialist kicker onto the field to try and win the game. The problem was that fly-half Nick Evans had been taken off early in the game, and the only way they could get him back onto the field - as long as he was a tactical substitute and not taken off as an injury replacement - was via a blood injury to another player.
Enter the Harlequins physio, who ran on to the pitch to hand a fake blood capsule to wing Tom Williams, who then left the field with blood seemingly pouring out of his mouth to be replaced by Nick. It was all a ruse and was met with a furious reaction from the rugby public, with Tom, the physio Steph Brennan and Quins’ team manager Dean Richards all receiving bans.
If I’m honest, I had no inclination whatsoever that there was something untoward going on. As the player trudged off, there was a bit of a kerfuffle on the side of the pitch that I obviously became aware of, but I only went over to check if Nick had been marked down as being substituted for a tactical reason rather than an injury. If he had been replaced and not substituted, then under no circumstances at all could he return.
I was under no impression at all that there might be something dodgy going on. I saw a bit of the blood as he was walking off, but I didn’t think for one minute that it wouldn’t be genuine. Why would I? This had never happened before and there was no reason to suspect it might all be fake. There has to be an element of trust, after all.
From that point, I was not aware of anything until I came off the field after the game, which Leinster held on to win after Nick’s late drop goal attempt went wide.
As I headed to the changing rooms, there was a big furore in the tunnel, lots of shouting and swearing, and there were people banging on my door, they all wanted to know what was going to happen.
I was thinking ‘What the hell is going on here?’. It was only then that I was updated on what had actually happened, and I just had to say that the match commissioner and governing body would sort it out. I could only give my report of what I had seen happen.
In the end, a clear message was sent out by the governing body. At the end of the day, whether we like it or not, gamesmanship is part of the sport and we have to be careful in how we deal with it. Players can become quite adept at the so-called ‘dark arts’ and might milk penalties or try to get into the referee's mind during games.
But something of this nature really crossed the line from gamesmanship into cheating and was completely contrary to the values of the game. Quite rightly, it was met by outrage from rugby fans across the world.
All told, it was a hideous mess that brought the game into disrepute. I don’t think I could have done anything differently on the day, however - it was something that caught all of us off guard.
It was somewhat of a watershed moment for our sport, however. While gamesmanship will always exist, I certainly don’t think we’ll see anything of this nature happen ever again.
But just to be clear - and if you’ll pardon the pun - there’s no bad blood between me and Tom, nor any of the Harlequins coaches or backroom staff for that matter. I refereed Harlequins the following season and Tom apologised to me then, but I said to him that there was no need for the apology. There were plenty of other players who were trying to pull the wool over my eyes most weeks!
In fact, he signed the referee jersey I was wearing during the Bloodgate match, as did I, and it’s now displayed in my local rugby club, Pontyberem RFC.
One thing I am glad of, however, is that Leinster held on to win that game. If Quins had gone on to win, we’d probably still have lawyers arguing over it to this day and it would have all been very complicated, with not much time between that game and the semi-final.
In the end, it led to one of my favourite ever occasions as a referee, as Leinster faced Munster at Croke Park in the final. These were the glory days of the Heineken Cup and it was a world record crowd for a club game - 82,000 people - with both teams packed with international class players and the sun shining down on us.
It was a wonderful atmosphere and a brilliant match, which was deservedly won by Leinster. But, as we all know now, it could have all been so different.
