Bloodgate: Tom Williams says Harlequins attempted cover-up after club doctor cut his mouth

Harlequins have been left reeling from bombshell revelations from Tom Williams, the player at the centre of the 'Bloodgate' scandal, who has claimed that the club’s doctor cut his lip to cover up the scam. The player claims he was then pressurised to lie by the club at the original disciplinary hearing.

Read full details of the Tom Williams 'Bloodgate' appeal hearing

Williams also claimed that the club effectively tried to limit the scope of his appeal with a lucrative compensation deal offered to him by the club chairman, Charles Jillings, which included a two-year extension to his contract, a testimonial, and a “three-year employment opportunity” at the club after his retirement.

In an explosive 38-page judgment released on Tuesday from the European Rugby Cup appeal hearing into the controversy, Williams said he had been cut by team doctor Wendy Chapman in an attempt to cover-up the use of a fake blood capsule in the Heineken Cup match against Leinster in April and later agreed to say he had cut his own lip to protect Chapman’s reputation.

Williams also revealed that he had been told to lie to the original hearing by former director of rugby, Dean Richards, who later resigned and received a three-year worldwide ban for his role in the deception and subsequent cover-up

Williams also said chief executive Mark Evans warned him that a “full disclosure” at the appeal hearing would “make life extremely difficult for him at the club".

The damning evidence will throw the club into chaos with kick-off to the Premiership campaign just 10 days away.

Williams’s testimony about the incident in the changing room as panic grew because Leinster immediately began questioning the authenticity of the blood injury makes for gruesome reading.

“I believe it was at this point that I asked Wendy to make the cut,” said Williams. “I cannot recall exactly what was said, but I do remember that she was not happy about it.

“We were both anxious and the atmosphere was extremely tense. I believe Wendy pulled down my lip and attempted to cut it with a scalpel.

"I think she may have had to leave the room to get the scalpel. I believe that I had rinsed my mouth before she cut it.

“Wendy was initially too gentle, and we needed to try again to open a cut. When she was successful, there was no need for stitches as it was a clean cut.

"She put a gauze on it and told me to apply pressure to the cut. It took a long time for the bleeding to stop.

“I would like to emphasize that, as far as I am concerned, Wendy was as much a victim in all this as me.

"I do not believe that she had any prior knowledge that the fake injury was going to take place and she was put in an extremely hostile and tense atmosphere alongside me in the physio room.”

The judgment said that Chapman’s evidence at the original hearing was “not consistent with this version of events” and as she was not present at the appeal hearing she has not had the opportunity to respond to the allegations that she cut Williams’s lip.