By Priscilla Jepchumba
A rugby coach from Wales has been given an eight-week suspension after physically assaulting an opposing player during a pre-season non-competitive match in 2023. Tim Morris, the coach of Hollybush RFC, entered the playing field and attacked David Tams, a player from Blackwood Stars.
Tams has disagreed with the ban, saying, “There’s absolutely no place for this in rugby, he had no right to even be on the field. Don’t get me wrong, it flares up between players sometimes, but you’ve got somebody that’s not a player coming off the side of the pitch.”
Incidents similar to this are not new in rugby history. For example, in 2023, a coach from the Houston Sabercats team was ejected from a match for physically confronting the opposing team’s coach. This incident underscored the need to implement stronger measures to prevent such behavior in the future.
After the incident, the field was suddenly swarmed by players and coaches desperately trying to calm the chaotic situation. The eruption of violence abruptly stopped, but not before both coaches were swiftly removed from the game.
The Welsh Rugby Union investigated Morris’s recent incident in Wales and reached a conclusion this year. The WRU determined that Morris had breached the organization’s code of conduct.
“We (WRU) conducted an investigation into the case, and a Disciplinary Panel was heard earlier this year. The individual accused was found to have breached the WRU Code of Conduct and was subject to an eight-week ban in line with the World Rugby Sanctions for Foul Play,” said the WRU.
“The eight-week ban ended on 25th September 2024, and we (WRU) are unaware of any previous disciplinary issues involving that individual,” added the WRU.
However, some critics have argued that Morris’s ban was not sufficiently long to effectively address and eliminate such behavior.
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