In response to the revealing of the final judgement and transcript of the Bloodgate affair, I thought it only right to publish a verdicty myself. The following also appeared on the bbc website.
Having followed this debacle pretty much throughout, I was looking forward to hearing the "whole story". First up I'd have to say that Tom Williams comes out of this rather less covered in glory than he'd have hoped by coming clean/shopping his colleagues and employers.
As Simon Austin on bbc.co.uk points out, Harlequins offered him financial inducements not to fully disclose, but I for one would have thought that everything he has revealed (his blackmail of the club for a mortgage pay off included) should have resulted in a longer ban rather than a reduction. When this wasn't forthcoming he blew the whole story out of the water which seems like a criminal case to answer if Harlequins want to pursue this (which I guess they won't).
Not that it matters, as I'm sure he'll not be playing in the premiership for quite a while - I can't think of any team wanting to touch him. For someone who was told he was "on the fringes of England squad", he seemed quite prepared to knife in the back the guy who'd got him there. He comes across as a bit of a weasel with no backbone. As a professional, and a grown adult more to the point, he had the option to say no, and if the coach then wouldn't pick him, move to another club because he was "on the fringes of the England squad". It all seems like excuses and a poor attempt to save his own skin, which will hopefully have ruined his career as much as a year ban would have.
At least Dean Richards has taken his medicine, which sadly may be career-ending. All the Quins fans who've jumped on the bandwagon to talk about him as a domineering ogre have conveniently forgotten where they were when he took over, and where he has led them to. You can't have it both ways folks - good cop obviously doesn't work, but bad cop managed a great deal of success, both at Leicester and Quins.
It's a shame Richards got involved in this, as I think he'd have made a great England coach, but I would suggest that as this seems to be the tip of an iceberg, a 3 year ban does seeem excessive. I would argue that it was a case of a streetwise coach exploiting a loophole in the laws which needs to be closed. This is no different in my opinion to Batsmen in cricket being offered the light and taking it when it's still fine for play, or a football manager getting a 5th player sent off or injured to get the game abandoned (I think Sheff Utd did this once).
It seems like English Rugby needs a clean up after this blood letting, but I'm absolutely positive that we're not on our own.
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