00:00As he came off the field, blood was spilling out of his mouth, but as he got to the sideline
00:04and
00:04he was spotted winking at one of his teammates, it began to feel like something wasn't quite
00:09right. At the time, the Harlequins were trailing Leinster by one point, and there were only 10
00:14minutes left in the rugby quarterfinal. The Harlequins' kicker had been taken out with a
00:18torn hamstring, and after having already subbed off their star kicker, Nick Evans,
00:23the Harlequins had run out of tactical substitutions and were left without a
00:27specialist goal kicker on the field. So in a desperate move, they had to bring on winger
00:31Tom Williams. But when Tom himself was also injured only a few minutes after coming on,
00:36it was actually quite convenient for the Harlequins. They weren't technically able to make another
00:41substitution, but rugby has a specific rule for blood injuries. If a player is visibly bleeding,
00:47they could be temporarily replaced by a player who has already been subbed off. This meant that the
00:52team could sub back on Nick, their star kicker. But when Tom had been tackled, it didn't seem like
00:57the hit would cause that kind of damage. He was also limping off the field, which was strange given
01:02that the blood was gushing from his mouth, not his leg. Leinster were suspicious, so their team doctor
01:08followed Tom towards the medical room. But before he could come in, he had the door slammed and locked
01:13in his face. He started banging on the door, demanding to see the injury, and eventually the door
01:18opened and he was allowed inside. He checked Tom's mouth and sure enough, there was a deep cut inside
01:23his lip which was bleeding. Tom Williams had really been injured. The game went on and the Harlequins
01:28once again had their star kicker back on the field, ready to score a last minute drop goal to steal
01:33the
01:33win. But after the game, a conspiracy started to unravel. In replays of the game footage, people noticed
01:39that the Harlequins' physio secretly handed something to Tom, which he slipped into his sock. Then,
01:45right before he was taken off the field, Tom reached into his sock, taking something out,
01:49dropping it on the grass and fumbling to find it, and then finally pushing it into his mouth.
01:54The theory was that Tom had used a fake blood capsule, probably from a joke shop. But that still
01:59didn't explain how Tom actually had a real cut in his mouth. So what really happened? Well, as it
02:04turned out, the entire thing was orchestrated by the Harlequins' director of rugby, Dean Richards,
02:10and the physio, Steph Brennan. Tom had in fact initially used a blood capsule. But when the
02:15Leinster doctor had become suspicious and demanded to see the injury in the medical room, panic set
02:20in. And the club doctor had then actually frantically cut open Tom's lip with a stitch
02:25cutter to hide the truth. Investigators later discovered that the club had used this tactic
02:30on at least four other occasions. The Harlequins were hit with a 260,000-pound fine, the director
02:36was banned from coaching for three years, the physio got a two-year ban, and the doctor who cut Tom
02:41was suspended. Oh yeah, and remember that final kick that Nick Evans took to win the game?
02:45He missed it. It was all for nothing.
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