Matt Stevens get 2 year ban

[bluntiger]

Just announced on Sky News.

[GS]

Been to Sky News and Sport, couldn't find it, have you got a link?

[Bill W]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_u ... 913467.stm

[tigermad]

Not too surprising that Matt Stevens got a 2 year ban. Any news on Martin Corry and his possible appeal against a six week ban?

[Bill W]

Corry not appealing

See thread Wheelbrace speaks

[tigermad]

Thanks for that BW.

[Kinoulton]

Just announced on Sky News.

Utterly stupidly excessive punishment.

Yeah, yeah, I know drugs is wrong.

So is drinking to the point where you upset people. So is drink driving. So is sleeping with other people's wives when you are already married. So is deliberately injuring someone. So is perjury. So is theft. So is mugging. So is happy slapping. So is racism. So is crashing our financial instituions so that people have lost billions.

Slamming the door shut on someone's career for doing recreational drugs is typical of our upside down thinking. Meanwhile we "rehabilitate" killers, rapists and peadophiles.

Matt Stevens should be back at work doing his job, doing his rehab, and living with the support of all of us that want to see him back on the straight and narrow.

I know he was daft (like no one on this forum has ever done something daft?) but really this is rubbish.

[Bill W]

I am sure that the disciplinary panel feel really good about their judgement Kinny.

[Gate]

Harsh. Till the end of this season would have been plenty to show disapproval and get him rehabbed. It's not as if Nasenpulver is a performance-enhancing drug, after all. What would he have got for usig steroids?

[chappie]

Good to see he has a long ban!
There is No room in any sport for Smack heads!

[Kinoulton]

There is No room in any sport for Smack heads!

Says who?

[Tircoeds]

So is drinking to the point where you upset people. So is drink driving. So is sleeping with other people's wives when you are already married. So is deliberately injuring someone. So is perjury. So is theft. So is mugging. So is happy slapping. So is racism. So is crashing our financial instituions so that people have lost billions.

Slamming the door shut on someone's career for doing recreational drugs is typical of our upside down thinking. Meanwhile we "rehabilitate" killers, rapists and peadophiles.

Well, there are very different degrees of wrong.

For people in the public eye and those who are seen to be role models, if those wish to remain to be seen there, and get the rewards for being at the top end of their profession, then, they must act responsibly.

There is a large difference between getting drunk and annoying a few people and taking drugs, it is also possible to annoy people without any stimulant ... see the thread on dazed and confused !

I agree that with some cases of rehabilitation (as you have mentioned above), there can be cause for concern, but to use that as an arguement for a lesser ban on Stevens, IMO displays a lack of judgement.

[Mat]

Harsh I think! He has gone on record to say he has a problem! As such he was not doing it for performance enhancing. They should have inclused clauses about rehabilitation and work with the ccmmnumity to encourage others to give up , that should then have reduced the length of the ban.

[Tircoeds]

He has gone on record to say he has a problem!

Call me cynical, but did he say that on record, before or after he was discovered ?

Again, different degrees of wrong ... asking for help before testing postive is different from admitting to a problem once it has been found. I am not saying that is the case this time, as I am unsure of the detail.

[Bill W]

In sport, currently, drug taking is seen as an absolute taboo. Sportmen know this when they particpate in their chosen sport.

In other fields of entertainment it is accepted and even the norm.

Quite why this should be I neither know nor care much. Likely just another case of society having multiple standards.

Matt Stevens was aware of the consequences of being caught, and of the probability of being caught.

Had he been a musician, a model, an actor, or even an MP few would have cared cornerwise! But that has nothing to do with it.

He knew the rules and the punishment for breaking the rules. He broke them.