If only all club president’s ran their mouth in such entertaining fashion
Toulon fullback Delon Armitage and prop Martin Castrogiovanni are up in front of the EPCR disciplinary committee in London this morning and they have some explaining to do.
The Trinidad and Tobago native and Italian international face charges today, having been cited for respectively abusing Leicester supporters, at Welford Road, and calling Tigers director of rugby Richard Cockerill – among other things – a ‘f***ing c***’.
Toulon president Mourad Boudjellal believes Castrogiovanni must ‘take his punishment and move on’ but has staunchly defended the elder of the two Armitage brothers on his club’s books.
Boudjellal told Varmatin he would like to see a definitive report on Armitage’s alleged verbal tirade. ‘The referee’s report does not mention it,’ he says, ‘and the accusation comes from three fans who, by their nature, are never neutral. If Delon told them off, I do not condone it but you can not go through life not responding too.’
‘This was not Eric Cantona jumping into the stands,’ he adds. ‘I do not understand the process of how, and why, Leicester made the citing. We have had lots of incidents in Toulon but they were never mentioned to anyone. We are accustomed to English (teams) who have a little more class.’
Toulon head coach Bernard Laporte went a step further, suggesting that the Tigers supporters should have been sanctioned for the ‘not very nice things’ they shouted down from the stands.
‘We must not reverse punishment. Is this a upside down world or what?’ he remarked. Laporte revealed his massive dislike for injustice and expressed his surprise that Leicester’s chief executive was the person that pressed for Armitage to be cited.
