Gough punches Castro & White eye gouging?

[Wayne Richardson Fan Club]

Stanko's ear was bleeding was he bitten?

Can you cite for cheating?

Must agree that JW is more likely to "Lamp" someone than gouge them, he may be a bit of a Thug on the field of play but he is an Old Fashioned one, rather like Deano used to be. Maybe the TV evidence will show something if not, I agree that JW could sue for slander.

[Big Dai]

Conspiracy theory number 4 over a bacon sandwich and a red wine hangover.

(The black eye resulting from some anti Welsh expletives plus the wife reading my posts will heal in the fullness of time.)

.....It's all to do with the 6 nations. The Welsh, unable to scrummage properly, are trying to get the newly reinstated White banned prior to the internationals.

[Mr. Grumpy]

It’s on the front page of the Sunday Times sports section:

“We have players in our changing room with marks round their eyes,” Humphreys said. “There were a couple of incidents at Welford Road. It is particularly disappointing it happens and particularly disappointing it happened with the same guy. There are a few guys in our dressing room upset with Julian.”

Sean Holley, the head coach, added that the Ospreys team manager had already taken up the incidents with the match citing officer. The officer has 48 hours in which to decide if there is a case to answer but Ospreys officials insisted that they would not have named an individual unless they were absolutely sure of their ground. They also claimed to have video evidence of the offences. Holley said: “We do not advocate gouging in our team. We will look at the evidence . . . and we will follow it up, which we did not do at Welford Road. We need to keep this thing out of our game.”

Leicester Tigers would not comment on the allegations last night.

The Ospreys coaches also alleged that there were incidents of gouging in their recent match in Perpignan, backing up the impression, as reported exclusively in The Sunday Times last month, that the practice is becoming more prevalent.

Well, this one is not going to go away then. Interesting that they mention their recent match against Perpignan. I wonder if this is the earlier match at the Liberty where the Tincu incident happened or the match last week? If that’s the case Ospreys have made allegations in all of their pool matches with the exception of the Trevisio games. Are the Ospreys taking press outburst tips from Alex Ferguson?

[Big Dai]

...........if Shane Williams can take tips from Ronaldo then the Boss can also take a hint or two. Why not?

Say a thing often enough to the right people and it must be true. The power of the media! Look at the mess the county's in now!

[TTRITH]

So,Gough punches Castro, Boris goes off with his ear bleeding but that's all ok because Osprey players have slight marks around their eyes.

I always thought eye-gouging was putting your finger in someones eye and scraping!

Earlier on in this season, in the game against London Irish, their was photographic evidence of eye-gouging yet they got away with it, I sincerly hope that this gets thrown back in the Ospreys face or else we could have another TIncu mess on our hands.

Just lost any respect i had for the O's.

Though... If Julien was in fact eye gouging and i see video evidence then i will apologise, until then, I sincerly hope something happens today and the Ospreys are out of the competition.

[Cliffeclimber]

Interesting article. I'm sure that Cockers could have pointed out the plenty of Tigers' players had marks on their heads too, but it doesn't prove intent of anything.

It's also quite a compliment for them to say that there are a few Osprey guys who are upset with Julien. I'd be surprised if there weren't as he bossed them in almost every scrum.

I'm also pleased to read that the Ospreys don't advocate gouging in their team, but this obviously doesn't apply to taking a swing at an opponent.

[chipnchase]

Moose me old mucka you missed a great game yesterday. A friendly chap from an un named Leicestershire club decided that his thumb wasnt really working when he tried to gouge me in a maul so proceeded to swap to his index finger. Lovely stuff and i still cant see clearly.

[Jake Bullet]

On the other hand, why not just wait to see what the evidence shows. If players are saying that they are being gouged then it has to be looked at, not passed off as pathetic whinging. If he is guilty of it, throw the book at him.

As for the Tincu issue, it was he that brought the game into disrepute, not the Ospreys for citing him.

[Mr. Grumpy]

On the other hand, why not just wait to see what the evidence shows. If players are saying that they are being gouged then it has to be looked at, not passed off as pathetic whinging. If he is guilty of it, throw the book at him.

I think that’s the whole point of most of the posts. Don't go bringing this up in the press until it is officially investigated. If there is evidence, and White is found guilty there won't be too much sympathy on here. It's the way that the Ospreys are going about this that grates.

[CharlieR]

This is a serious allegation. I was in the crowd 10M from where one of the incidents occurred.

Hibbard was being held back by AWJ. White was taunting him and Hibbard had BLOOD COMING FROM HIS EYE SOCKET.

Hibbard was gouged. Who did it I don't know but someone did and White is the most likely candidate.

Soory guys I have a soft spot for Leicester - my favorite English team - but one of your front rows should be banned for life IMHO as I dont think that Hibbards apparent injuries could be accidental or self-inflicted.

[CharlieR]

I forgot - this incident was in the first 20 mins...well before Gough got punchy.

[Mr. Grumpy]

Before the match, watching the Tigers team come out of the changing room on TV, did anyone notice that Julian White had a cut underneath his right eye before the match even kicked off? Check it out if you’ve got it on Sky+.

Just thought I’d mention it. Possibly a ball boy had a go. Don’t know if the press would be interested.

[salcombe bob]

could it be they failed to stop us getting the bonus point? THEY too had all the advantages-home, full side out, most of the Wales team and they couldn't score a try,whereas we were missing a load of first choice players.

Ah , that would be it.

[yellow_balaclava_hunter]

Have Leicester complained to the press about the punching incidents?

Have Leicester complained about the diving?

Have Leicester complained about Wentzel being kicked in the head whilst on the ground, in an incident that led to Wentzel being penalised for holding onto the ball?

Answer : No

Rugby is a physical game , you can't play it and expect to come out of every game with your makeup intact and your fake tan unblemished.

Tigers don't tend to report things unless serious injury has occurred.

I would be very disappointed if Julian was attempting to gouge, we'll have to wait and see but screaming to the press about it surely means that there now can't be a fair citing enquiry and therefore one should not be undertaken.

I was very disappointed with some of the behaviour I witnessed this Saturday. The complaints by the coaches match the behaviour of a large proportion of the supporters.

I've met some very nice Ospreys supporters in my time but there seems to be a majority who will boo the opppsitions kicker and will boo the away team when they come back onto the pitch to thank their supporters for travelling to the game. I also saw a lot of very agressive gestures made by Ospreys supporters towards Tigers players.

This behaviour lets those more respectful Ospreys supporters down; it is the kind of behaviour that is common at Football matches. There is no place for it in Rugby and it shows that the Ospreys have a long way to go before they become the Rugby institution that they aspire to, both on and off the pitch.

[parkerd68]

I sincerely hope that JW didn't gouge and that this is proved to be the case. If he is found guilty then I hope they throw the book at him. I'm a huge fan of his, and think he's in incredible form at the moment, but there is no place in the game for cheap shots like that. I've had a quick lok throught the game and can't see anything myself, but then I know nothing anyway!

When Hibbard had a go at Cozza, just before Cozza patted him on the head, there did seem to be something going on on the floor. I hope that's not something that our captain can get into trouble for.

Finally, whether or not JW is cited and guilty, this still smacks of sour grapes. Osprey's say this happened in the WR game but chose not to say anything to the citing officer. Is that because they only just lost and still got a bonus point? I bet they were reasonably happy with that. Now, when they're possibly out of the HC, the dummy's been spat out. Hmmmm....

I too agree with the conspiracy theory that the Welsh are pooping themselves about the 6 nations. Amusing.