Scottish Rugby have been given a fine and have been told to write a ‘meaningful apology’ by World Rugby after comments they made during this year’s Rugby World Cup in Japan.
As well as having to make the apology the union has been told to pay a £70,000 fine for their comments.
The punishment refers to comments made by Scottish Rugby Union Chief Mark Dodson, who stated that the union would sue World Rugby if Scotland’s final game of the pool stages was called off.
Scotland’s clash with Japan was under threat from Typhoon Hagibis as it looked set to hit the Yokohama Stadium on the day of their vital match. If cancelled the Scots would have been eliminated despite having a chance to progress with a win over the tournament hosts. However, the game was able to be played despite the devastation left in the wake of the typhoon and Scotland were defeated 28-21, leaving them heading home anyway.
However, Dodson’s claim that they would sue World Rugby and his criticism of the running of the tournament were not taken lightly by World Rugby who brought forward two charges against the union.
World Rugby today released a statement to explain the decision that was made.
“World Rugby strongly believed the comments, which suggested an unfair and disorganised treatment of all teams, to be inappropriate and ill-judged at a time when Japan was preparing for the largest and most destructive typhoon in decades. The international federation believed that such comments brought the game into disrepute, not only in relation to World Rugby’s handling of an extraordinary situation, but also in the message that it sent to the Japanese people. Having considered all the evidence, including submissions by World Rugby and the SRU, the committee determined in respect of the first charge that comments attributed to Mark Dodson amounted to misconduct and brought the game into disrepute. In respect of the second charge, the available evidence was insufficient for the committee to be satisfied on the balance of probabilities as to the source of the offending remarks and therefore it dismissed the charge,â€? the statement read.
The committee confirmed that the fine that it has handed down will be donated to the Childfund Pass it Back programme, assisting in the relief effort ongoing in areas affected by the typhoon.
It will be interesting to see how the union’s apology is given as they previously refused to apologise when provided with the chance to get away with a lighter punishment.
