Microphone picks up Sale owner calling Gloucester witness a 'liar' in RFU hearing
A stinging verbal outburst by Sale owner Simon Orange during a recent RFU disciplinary hearing has laid bare the broken relationship that now exists between the Manchester club and Premiership rivals Gloucester. At the heart of the fall-out was how Springbok midfielder Rohan Janse van Rensburg – who wanted a move away from South Africa in June 2017 following the death of his mother, an ACL injury and being the victim of an armed robbery at his home – wound up signing contracts with both Gloucester and Sale at the same time.
That extraordinary situation led to the disciplinary hearing which resulted this week in the South African receiving a two-week suspension and a £32,500 fine, of which £25,000 must be repaid to Gloucester after they advanced him that sum of money when he initially signed in October 2017.
Sale were given a five points deduction, suspended for two forthcoming seasons, and a fine of £20,000, while van Rensburg’s agent Matthew Ginvert received a reprimand, a fine of £3,750 and was directed to undertake the agent’s education programme. In announcing these punishments on Friday, the RFU released the compelling 25-page written verdict of the three-person independent disciplinary panel comprising James Dingemans (chair) with Tim Ward QC and Gareth Graham.
Included in the 80 sub-sections sifting through the various parts of the case, part 34 recalled the January 2018 communication between Sale owner Orange and Stephen Vaughan, the Gloucester director who has since gone on to become Wasps’ chief executive. That telephone call resulted in Orange calling Vaughan a liar more than two years later when the ex-Gloucester administrator gave evidence to the disciplinary panel.
The written verdict stated: “On January 2, 2018, Simon Orange, the owner of Sale, rang Stephen Vaughan, a director of Gloucester, and asked whether Gloucester had signed van Rensburg. Vaughan confirmed that Gloucester had signed van Rensburg but asked that the matter be kept quiet. Orange said that Vaughan had used the words ‘hush, hush’ but Vaughan did not accept that he had used those words.
Van Rensburg has been fined and banned for two weeks. https://t.co/q8t6hwQvV8
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) April 24, 2020
“We cannot see that anything very much turns on this particular point, it being just the sort of difference in recollection that one might expect from honest witnesses attempting to recall some two years after the event the details of a conversation which was not recorded or noted.
“When Vaughan was giving evidence Orange was watching on his own laptop. Orange was in the same room (at a safe distance for Covid-19 reasons) as Martin Budworth, counsel for van Rensburg and Sale who was questioning Vaughan through Budworth’s laptop.
“Orange could be heard calling Vaughan a liar in comments which must have been picked up by the microphone on Budworth’s computer. When Orange gave evidence he particularly remarked that Gloucester seemed to believe that its directors had a ‘divine right’ to be believed.
“We can confirm that no witness has such a right to be believed, but we could not discern any basis on which we should not accept Vaughan’s evidence which was given in a straightforward manner and accorded with the documents.
“We accept that Orange believed that the words hush hush had been used, but this was consistent with Vaughan either asking that the matter be kept quiet and Orange remembering the words used as hush hush, or Vaughan using the words hush hush and remembering that as a request that the matter be kept quiet.”
The contentious 2018 phone call was further referenced in section 35 of the written verdict. “In evidence, Orange said that in the phone call Vaughan was slippery and that he immediately did not believe that Gloucester had signed van Rensburg. However in an email dated April 25, 2018, from Orange to Martin St Quinton, the chairman of Gloucester, Orange said ‘when Steve told me you had signed the player I had no reason not to believe him UNTIL we asked the player and he told he definitely had not signed a contract’.
“It is not possible to reconcile the email with Orange’s oral evidence to us. This is because Orange could not immediately have disbelieved Vaughan because he was slippery and yet said ‘I had no reason not to believe him’ in the email.”
Comments on RugbyPass
that backline nope that backline is terrible why would you have sevu Reece when he’s not even top 5 wingers in the comp why have Blackadder when there’s better players no Scott barret isn’t an automatic the guy is more of a liability than anything why have him there when you have samipeni who’s far far better
24 Go to commentsAh, good to find you Nick. Agree with everything about Cale. So much to like about his game
48 Go to commentsNot too bad. Questions at 6, lock and HB for me. The ABs will be a lot stronger once Jordan and Roigard return. Also, work needs to be made to secure Frizzell back for next season and maybe also Mo’unga; they’re just wasting time playing in japan
24 Go to commentsOn the title, i wonder for many of those people it is a case something like a belief in working smarter, not harder?
1 Go to commentsForget Sotutu. One of those whose top level is Super Rugby. Id take a punt on Wallace Sititi Finau ahead of Glass body Blackadder.
24 Go to commentsI’m a pensioner so I've been around a bit. My opinion of SBW is he is an elite athlete and a great New Zealander and roll model. He has been to the top and knows what he's talking about. To all the negative comments regarding SBW the typical New Zealand way, cut that tall poppy down.
17 Go to commentsI'm not listening to a guy moralise over others when this is the guy who walked out mid season on Canterbury RLFC when he had a contract with them, what a hypocrite. Those praising him are a joke.
17 Go to commentsI’d put Finau at 6 instead of Blackadder but that’s the only change I’d make. Can’t wait to see who Razor picks.
24 Go to commentsTamati Williams, Codie Taylor, and Same Cane? Not sure about Hoskins Sotutu at test level. Wasn’t that impressive last season. Need a balance between experience and talent/youth.
24 Go to commentsInteresting insight. Fantastic athlete, and a genuine human being.
17 Go to commentsThey played at night in Suva last weekend and it’s an afternoon game forecast for 19 degrees in Canberra this weekend. Heat change is a non issue.
1 Go to commentsWishing Rosie a speedy recovery
1 Go to commentsObscene that SA haven’t been knocking
1 Go to commentsChances of Blackadder being injured seem too high to give him serious consideration. ABs loosie combination finally looked good with 2 committed to tackling and clearing rucks in the centre and Ardie roaming. Hoskins/Ardie together would force one of them into where they don’t excel and don’t get to use their talent, or require a change in tactics. If we continue to evolve last years systems I would take Papali’i and Finau at 6 and 7 (conceding that Blackadder will be injured) and Ardie at 8.
24 Go to commentsArdie’s preferred position 7? Where do they get these writers from? I've no idea where he's playing in Japan, but the previous two seasons he wore the 7 jersey exactly twice.
17 Go to commentsNot good to hear Ulster described as “financially troubled”. Did not think it was getting to that level. I would hope the Irish system of spreading players of talent away from Leinster would kick in now. Better to have a Leinster fringe player with Ulster or Connacht, then getting only a few games a season in Dublin. 10, for example, would seem to be a case for spreading the talent. I would not be at all adverse to a SA man coming in as head coach/DR. Ludeke is worth trying. Certainly got a long and impressive coaching career at this level…..149 games in SR, then Japan, 30 years experience. And Ulster’s ledger of successful SA coaches and players is on the positive side. Is talk of Ruan Pienaar interested in coming back as a coach…..could be a good combination with Ludeke. And Pienaar and family would have no settling in to do, one would judge. He loved life in Ulster when there, by all reports.
1 Go to commentsSome thoughts to consider here, Sam. Thanks
2 Go to commentsI think he is right, SBW is respected in RSA. The guy who never stood up is a worm. Sseems lots of NZ SBW hate, you do the crime do the time.
17 Go to commentsAfter missing the curfew, the player was simply too “Shagged” to stand up.
17 Go to commentsVernier is probably the best 12 in the world though she has some English competition these days . I am nervous for England because it is unpredictable France and who knows which team will turn up, but they have not yet shown anything that should worry England, Saturday could be a different day. I would be more confident against the BFs.
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