Tom Williams. Was it really that bad?

By Brian Dick on Jul 22, 09 10:36 AM in Rugby

Schalk Burger, Alan Quinlan, Bakkies Botha and Trevor Brennan. Just a few names to wrestle with, if you're brave enough, while pondering rugby's latest bad boy.

Burger, you will recall, assaulted Lions wing Luke Fitzgerald at the very start of the second Test when he stuck a digit into the Irishman's eye socket. He was subsequently banned for eight weeks.

Munsterman Quinlan was found guilty of something similar in the Heineken Cup semi final with Leinster. His sentence was a 12 week suspension.

Botha meanwhile body-charged Adam Jones thereby injuring the Welsh tighthead and putting him out of the sport for six months. For this offence the lock was suspended for two weeks.

Perhaps the worst of the lot Brennan was banned for life after he waded into the crowd and punched a spectator in a quite unprecedented attack, the like of which has rarely, if ever, been seen before.

So what of Williams, the pretty Harlequins wing, who was this week suspended for a year?

His crime must surely range somewhere between Burger's and Brennan's. Someone, somewhere must have been seriously hurt.

No. The 25-year-old was found to have feigned injury thereby allowing drop goal specialist Nick Evans back on to the pitch when he had already been replaced.

Serious stuff eh? Not really. Evans' presence for the last few minutes of 'Quins' European quarter final against Leicester was irrelevant, they still lost.

But European Rugby Cup Ltd found that his action was serious enough to blemish an unimpeachable disciplinary record and merit and a most severe punishment.

Perhaps key to that ruling was the alleged existence of television footage which it was claimed showed Williams winking as he came off the pitch.

And Williams should know from Cristiano Ronaldo's experience no-one like a winker.

But similarly no-one likes rough justice being handed down to a soft target when other, dangerous, incidents of foul play receive little more than a slap on the wrist.