THE GLASWEGIAN REPORTS


Peter Wright: Slap Life Bans On Eye Gouge Cheats After Calcutta Cup Horror
Mar 18 2010 By Matthew Leslie

BAN the gougers for life is Scotland legend and Glasgow Hawks boss Peter Wright's view after last week's Calcutta Cup was mired in controversy.
The 15-all draw at Murrayfield produced a dramatic finish but two unsavoury incidents marred a competitive game.
An Edinburgh-based publication produced a picture of Scotland hooker Ross Ford having his left eye on the receiving end of an English finger.
Meanwhile our picture on the right shows Glasgow's own Max Evans having his own left eye being shamefully intruded upon by England skipper Steve Borthwick's thumb.
Gouging has been in the headlines of late with French pair, Ben Attoub and Julien Dupuy being banned for 70 and 23 weeks respectively.
And Wright says that if the Six Nations body deems the Ford and Evans incidents worthy of punishment, they should throw the book at the English duo involved - even if he would throw it harder.
He said: "It is terrible and if the Six Nations citing commissioner deems the incidents serious enough to cite the English pair then the recent French example should be applied and a lengthy ban be slapped on them.
"Two or three years would be my minimum punishment to deter other players from doing it but personally, I'd throw them out of the sport for good."
One other aspect of the game which ruined the match for spectators was the inability of South African whistler Marius Jonkers to set the scrum.
Wright added: "I've a wee bit of sympathy for Marius as firstly, the is no clear direction from the law-makers as to what to do with the scrum. Secondly, he could have gone down the easy route by taking guesses and awarded penalties left, right and centre.
"The scrum has to be reviewed over the summer because it is becoming an unnecessary issue at all levels of rugby.
"One aspect I'd change would be to take the hit out of the scrum. It might hurt Scotland more if the IRB did that but we would see smoother scrums and quicker ball being produced as a result because this can't go on."
With regard to Max Evans, we spoke to him before the release of the above picture and have been unable to gain further comment as we went to press.
However, the Glasgow man while pleased to get the draw was frustrated that the Scots didn't get anything more.
He said: "It is a weird feeling.
"Yes we stood our ground to a very good team and put them under some pressure but at the same time, we could have won.
"Playing on the wing, it was hard to keep your focus with much of the game taking place so the backs could ask as many questions as we wanted to.
"Ireland should be a different matter as they like to play an expansive game which suits us as well - it could in fact be a good old fashioned Magners clash."

This article was posted on 18-Mar-2010, 20:23 by Hugh Barrow.