Everyone's favourite English Toulon player, Delon Armitage, has been in a spot of bother recently. Armitage has recently been suspended for 12 weeks, after being found guilty of misconduct after a Toulon Champions Cup match against Leicester Tigers at Welford Road on the 7th of December 2014.
The EPCR have released the full report from the hearing, and it's surprisingly interesting. It's quite like a transcript of an episode of Serial.
It turns out that two complaints of misconduct were leveled at Mr. Armitage. One is classed as an on-field incident, the other is a post-match incident. Armitage was found not guilty of the on field incident, and has been given the suspension for the 2nd event.
In the report, Armitage is alleged to have called the Leicester supporters "in-bred cunts", while talking to a team mate during the game, while he admitted to telling fans to "fuck off, I’ll fucking come down there and sort you out. Fuck off – come on then, come on then fuck off" post match, while they were requesting autographs and photos.
Armitage was not charged on the "in-bred cunts" comments due to inconsistencies in the testimonies given from witnesses, some of which were presented via Skype. He was however charged with misconduct and swearing in front of children who were "visibly confused". That's confused that a role model would act like that, and not confused at hearing someone say words to the effect of "go away, come here, and go away."
Credit to the child though, for realising that Delon isn't like other rugby players:
Tigers players are always very friendly and happy to chat.
Armitage was found to be presenting himself as the victim, and showed no remorse for the incident. He was given an eight week suspension, with an added four weeks for a terrible disciplinary record, and "is an habitual offender against the laws of the game and one for whom there needs to be a deterrent to combat a clear pattern of offending, both on and off the field".
See Also:
Video: Genuinely Shocked Reaction From Brian O’Driscoll On Entering RTE Sport Hall Of Fame
Picture credit: Sportsfile
