Naughty Ospreys being investigated

[Bill W (2)]

The root cause of all of the issue is neither Ospreys, Tigers, Munster, EPL or rugby fans - competence and ability to organise a local mini-rugby tournament.

Who are EPL? Do you mean PRL?

But I do agree. Inability to run drinks parties in breweries and gentlemens evenings in houses of disrepute spring to mind.

[Noggs]

...The issue is purely with Wheeler and Tom's underhanded use of lawyers to try and cheat their way back into the quarters...

Thanks fatgav for putting the idiot straight but why spoil it by including this bit. You can't seriously question the right of a club to ask the question when a team fields an extra player at a crucial period in a game or as in this case has clearly signed a player on a 3 month contract in complience with the written rules of the competition fully in the knowledge that the player would return home after 2 months. The fact that you are able to get away with it doesn't make it right and as such you have to question just who is cheating.

[Samlet]

Dear me, if you really were an Osprey through and through, you'd know we have no grievance with Cockerill who has remained professional throughout this episode, or indeed any of the playing or coaching staff. The issue is purely with Wheeler and Tom's underhanded use of lawyers to try and cheat their way back into the quarters. Tigers supporters are some of the best fans I have met on my travels and we were made very welcome at Welford, they do not deserve this nonsense from idiotic trolls like you. Grow up!

What he said. Toss off back to Bonymaen, Sloper (he won't like that, chaps, but you'll have to take my word for it).

As for Gav's choice of words, I prefer to use 'inveigle' rather than the more inflammatory and less accurate 'cheat'. However, what really woks my onions is Messrs Wheeler and Toms' announcement that Leicester had accepted the findings of the Byrne enquiry and were 'moving on', when at precisely the same moment they were using PRL as a front to raise another objection. The whole thing has obviously embarrassed Mark McCafferty (PRL but not Leicester), who told today's Guardian "Leicester feel the integrity of the competition has been compromised with the Ospreys exploiting a loophole."

As they say in France, Up Yours, Peter and Peter.

[fatgav]

Thanks fatgav for putting the idiot straight but why spoil it by including this bit. You can't seriously question the right of a club to ask the question when a team fields an extra player at a crucial period in a game or as in this case has clearly signed a player on a 3 month contract in complience with the written rules of the competition fully in the knowledge that the player would return home after 2 months. The fact that you are able to get away with it doesn't make it right and as such you have to question just who is cheating.

I certainly don't deny they have the right to question the ERC, but there are appropriate channels to do so. Using the media to put undue pressure on the disciplinary process is not one of them. Especially distasteful is suggesting possible punishments (disqualification/deduction of points/ fines etc.) before any judgement of guilt has been made.

Now the facts are known and have been fully investigated by the relevant bodies, the resultant judgement on the Ospreys is simply that they inadvertently played 50 seconds of a game with 16 players on the pitch but that this had no material impact on the game whatsoever. Rightly an appropriate sanction was applied and the embarrassment for an amateurish but genuine mistake has been received.

So much for innocent until proven guilty. As a result of Wheeler and Tom, our name has been dragged through the mud with erroneous and malicious accusations that have since been proved to be untrue. The behaviour of the executives has been disgraceful and unprofessional. We have NOT at ANY time deliberately attempted to cheat our way through this competition, but the statements by the above to the media paint a very different picture.

I don't think it is wrong to be aggrieved that the Ospreys have been portrayed as cheaters when at the very worst we were simply a little careless with one or two administrative procedures.

To summarise, my point was simply that we do have legitimate grievances with your board, but we recognise and I for one want to strongly emphasise that the grievances stop there. It is the business side of Leicester that has embarrassed itself, the rugby side (especially the fans) has always and still does have my utmost respect.

NB: Sorry if my feelings upset anyone, it's not meant as an attack. This is just meant as an informative explanation of why so many Ospreys fans are angry at Leicester at the moment. Unfortunately uneducated trolls are manifesting this anger in an inappropriate manner and for that I can only apologise.

[Bill W (2)]

I certainly don't deny they have the right to question the ERC, but there are appropriate channels to do so. Using the media to put undue pressure on the disciplinary process is not one of them. Especially distasteful is suggesting possible punishments (disqualification/deduction of points/ fines etc.) before any judgement of guilt has been made.

Rightly an appropriate sanction was applied and the embarrassment for an amateurish but genuine mistake has been received.

So much for innocent until proven guilty. As a result of Wheeler and Tom, our name has been dragged through the mud with erroneous and malicious accusations that have since been proved to be untrue. The behaviour of the executives has been disgraceful and unprofessional. We have NOT at ANY time deliberately attempted to cheat our way through this competition, but the statements by the above to the media paint a very different picture.

I don't think it is wrong to be aggrieved that the Ospreys have been portrayed as cheaters when at the very worst we were simply a little careless with one or two administrative procedures.

.

fatgav

You are entitled to you views and to express them.

As I am sure you will appreciate Tigers Fans were not amused when Ospreys Management chose publicly to accuse Julian White of gouging (which he was not even charged with) and subsequently blamed Cozza.

As I am sure you will also appreciate what to you look like one or two careless admininstative slip ups might look to others as deliberate attempts to bend the rules.

That ERC are incompetent is IMHO the main issue here. That Ospreys Management choose to exploit this incompetence is a scondary issue and that, in seeking to highlight this incompetence, Tigers Management choose to give some focus on Ospreys (albeit it is the media and Ospreys themselves rather than Munster who were similarly investigated) is a tertiary and somewhat irrelevant issue.

It is you who have decided that you are cheats. No-one else.

[kingol22]

So much for innocent until proven guilty. As a result of Wheeler and Tom, our name has been dragged through the mud

It is not our board that has dragged your name through the mud your management made the mistakes and it is there fault. You say your fans have grievances with our board what about our grievances with members of ospreys publicly saying leicester our sore losers and our trying to get ospreys kicked out. prl raised an issue which invloved many clubs. Has it occured that maybe the fact ospreys is one of those clubs is pure coincidence?

[fatgav]

It is not our board that has dragged your name through the mud your management made the mistakes and it is there fault. You say your fans have grievances with our board what about our grievances with members of ospreys publicly saying leicester our trying to get you chucked out when prl raised an issue which invloved many clubs. Has it occured that maybe the fact ospreys is one of those clubs is pure coincidence?

Firstly, you may want to edit your post as you're quoting me but you're attributing the quote to noggs which I'm sure he'd be unhappy with .

To answer your points individually...
1) As I already stated, the embarrassment for the 16 player mistake is just and accepted as such by us fans.
2) Please state where any Ospreys member have been "publicly leicester our trying to get you chucked out". I know of no such occurrence.
3) PRL may have raised the issue, but if you believe this is coincidental and anything other than at the request of Leicester, then I consider you to be quite naive, especially given Mark McCafferty's statement in the Guardian which explicitly mentions Leicester in connection with the incident.

[Samlet]

So much for innocent until proven guilty. As a result of Wheeler and Tom, our name has been dragged through the mud

It is not our board that has dragged your name through the mud your management made the mistakes and it is there fault. You say your fans have grievances with our board what about our grievances with members of ospreys publicly saying leicester our trying to get you chucked out when prl raised an issue which invloved many clubs. Has it occured that maybe the fact ospreys is one of those clubs is pure coincidence?

Utter tosh, and you know it. As I said above, Mark McCafferty from PRL let the cat out of the bag to the Guardian today (I'll let you decide whether he did it on purpose):


"Leicester feel the integrity of the competition has been compromised with the Ospreys exploiting a loophole."

That's Leicester, not 'We', not 'PRL'. This is Leicester's crusade, orchestrated by Mr Tom, who happens to be chairman of both Leicester and PRL and was being disingenuous (at best) when he publicly proclaimed after the Byrne result that Leicester were putting this year's HEC behind them.

As Mr Barwell said recently (I'm paraphrasing), Leicester have been living on the edge of the salary cap rules for some time now. Do you think Mr Toms would take it kindly if one of the other GP clubs insisted that PRL launched an investigation (all in the interests of fairness within the game, of course)? What goes around comes around.

As Gav says, Ospreys management have said absolutely nothing to the media apart from a couple of carefully worded press releases, which at no point ever say a bard word about Leicester.

I bet Caterpillar aren't too pleased to be associated with a club developing such a reputation for being sharp practitioners and ungracious losers.

[kingol22]

sorry noggs for quoting you dont know what happened there and i miswrote my post. re-read it makes more sense. it is not meant to be offensive and was not wrote to get a responce from people that it has clearly annoyed. so i am sorry that it has annoyed you. even if leicester raised the issue it was with more than one club it is just that ospreys have been signaled out because of recent issues. what ospreys have done recently is imo wrong i am not saying leicesters board were right to act as they did but the point i was trying to get across was that it was the mistakes your club made that led to the actions of our board which as you put it dragged your name through the mud. so therefor it is ospreys who have dragged there own name through the mud by letting these things happen not leicester for seeking answers from the erc. Also if the board had not pushed the issue it is likely the investigation would have dragged on longer they put pressure on the erc to sort it out quickly and they did.

[Rizzo]

You know - I shall be so glad when this whole sorry episode gets replaced by some other "scandal" - I wish it could all be put to bed and forgotten.....

but never mind, only another couple of pages and I can lock this

[parvacat]

Rizzo or any other kind moderator...please shut this link down. It's all tedious, immature repetition.

[kingol22]

if you want to lock it

[kingol22]

then why dont you make

[kingol22]

pointless posts like these?

[Bill W (2)]

I bet Caterpillar aren't too pleased to be associated with a club developing such a reputation for being sharp practitioners and ungracious losers.

Where on earth did you drag that one from?

I bet all the Welsh Regions are appalled at Ospreys behaviour. That the Celtic Nations as a whole are totally dissappointed that their teams are being dragged publically into disrepute. And that Europe wishes they could tow Wales out into the Atlantic and pull the plug out. And that Mr. Gatland is totally relieved that the political manoevreing of Ospreys is diverting the press's attention from the total failure of the National Team.

The above statement has as much credibility as yours - in fact, come to think of it, rather more!.