'You could write a book about Julian White's disciplinary hearings'
Former Leicester CEO Simon Cohen has reminisced about some of the scrapes that ex-Tigers, England and Lions tighthead Julian White got into over the years with disciplinary committees. The now 49-year-old was capped on 51 occasions by his country, becoming a 2003 World Cup winner in the process, while he also played four Tests for the Lions.
Having started out at Saracens and Bristol, it was at Leicester from 2003 through to 2012 where White cemented his reputation as a front-rower who enjoyed indulging in the dark arts and Cohen, who began working at the club in 2005, has now recounted two of the dramas involving the forward.
Firstly, he remembered the episode of White repeatedly punching Leinster’s Malcolm O’Kelly [click here to see the incident], behaviour that was yellow carded, cited and resulted in a five-week suspension that saw him miss three Premiership matches in 2008. He then recalled the red-carded 2009 punch thrown at Andrew Sheridan of Sale that merited a two-week ban [click here to see this incident].
Cohen made his journey down memory lane during an interview on The Big Jim Show, the series hosted by ex-Scotland lock Jim Hamilton, and it was after the rugby administrator mentioned that he was a lawyer prior to joining Leicester that the colourful antics of White were brought into the conversation.
“I did a lot of the disciplinary hearings… Julian White, you could write a book about Julian’s disciplinary hearings and the stories that came out of it, just fantastic stories. He punched Malcolm O’Kelly when we played Leinster at Welford Road. He punched him twice.
“I head referee Joel Jutge going, ‘Stop it, stop it now’. Julian punched him twice more after that. I went into the dressing room afterwards because I knew he was going to get cited, there was going to be a disciplinary hearing. I was right, ‘Julian, we need to get our story sorted for the hearing, it will be in Dublin, it will be Tuesday night, so there must have been some provocation, what did he do to make you punch him four times?’ Julian went, ‘Well, I actually don’t think he did anything’.”
Switching to the White incident with fellow England prop Sheridan the following year, Cohen – who was ousted as Leicester CEO in 2020 and spent two years on gardening leave before a settlement was reached – said: “He punched Andrew Sheridan and got sent off against Sale and it was a one-punch so it was a one-game ban.
“It was pretty standard save for the fact that at the time in the regulations if you were a persistent offender they could ban you for a much longer period. The chairman of the panel was Jeff Blackett, who is one of the country’s senior judges.
“I went in and said, ‘My job today, Mr Chairman, is to persuade you that Julian White is not a persistent offender’. He said, ‘I’ll have to stop you there, Mr Cohen’. He phoned down to his secretary or his PA and said, ‘Can you bring up another pot of tea? It’s going to be a long afternoon’.
“These things are just fantastic stories and made the club what it was, just great people and great characters and I worry that the game is losing some of that character. You still have got people like Coley [Dan Cole], who has got a brilliant sense of humour, Gengey [Ellis Genge] is pretty interesting, Gengey is a character, but they are less so because it has become more of a job I think.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Yes, Fiji can win the World Cup! With that belief plus their christian faith🙏 and hard work it is achievable. Great article. Ian Duncan Fiji resident 1981-84
2 Go to commentsInteresting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
10 Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
2 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
2 Go to commentsNow if they could just fire the Crusaders ground PA guy who likes to play his dance music and just loves the sound of his own voice the entire game, even when play is going on. And I thought their brass band thing of a few years ago was bad.
5 Go to commentsUnfortunately when you lose by far the two form players this season in Roigard and Aumua, you're left replacing two game changing Tanks with a couple of pea-shooters. Which is also about the speed of TJs pass.
2 Go to commentsBit rich coming from the guy with zero loyalty to anyone or any team, including happily taking a players place in a league world cup squad because well, SBW wanted to play in it and thus an already named player got told he was no longer going. And airing stuff like this, which may or may not be true, doesn't exactly say you're a stand up guy either SBW. Just looking to keep his name in lights as usual.
38 Go to commentsTamati Tua. …the Taniwha NPC midfielder. Ollie Sapsford, Hawkes Bay NPC midfielder…doing well
2 Go to commentsFiji deserve to be in the rugby championship, fans love seeing the Fijian national team play, the Fijian Drua is a wonderful idea but the players can still be stolen to play for NZ and AUS…
2 Go to commentsThe first concern for this afternoon are wheather forecast…
1 Go to commentsWhy cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
5 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
34 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to comments