Incident at Murrayfield?

by GLove39 Wed 18 Apr 2012, 7:27 pm

Reading Planet Rugby's Whos hot and who's not section, I was surprised and disappointed to read the following...

Edinburgh fans v Toulouse bench: This is not the kind of story we like to report on. Toulouse lock Yoann Maestri is set to return to Edinburgh for a court date after lashing out at a supporter who was taunting members of the visiting French team as they left the pitch at Murrayfield. The Heineken Cup organisers are investigating allegations that several supporters had hurled abuse at the Toulouse bench during their quarter-final clash. Toulouse manager Guy Novès says his team "felt threatened during the entire game" by fans sitting behind them but insists that nothing more than heated words were exchanged. The French champs say they learnt about the charges against Maestri in the press. Sounds like something from a soccer match.

http://www.planetrugby.com/story/0,25883,16016_7682685,00.html

Wondering if anyone on here knows anything more about this? What was said, did Maestri lash out etc?
If this is true then it's a bad state of affairs if so called fans were abusing players, still maybe it's to be expected with a crowd of almost 40K your going to get a few idiots.
Equally very poor show from Maestri to lash out.

by Portnoy Wed 18 Apr 2012, 7:38 pm

Sadly I fear that this will result in an outcome all-too-common in society at large.

i.e. the retaliator gets stung whilst the provocator(s) get of scot* free.

*pardon the unintentional pun.

by aitchw Wed 18 Apr 2012, 7:40 pm

'still maybe it's to be expected with a crowd of almost 40K your going to get a few idiots.'

Can't accept that, not in a rugby crowd. It's absolutely not on and whoever has brought the allegation better be able to prove he was an innocent victim, preferably by being able to name the tw*ts involved.

Whilst provocation is no excuse, I hope the outcome is no worse than a smack on the wrists if there is sufficient evidence to substantiate 'verbal abuse'.

Everyone's a loser in this.

by **Notch** Wed 18 Apr 2012, 7:42 pm

Yes, I read about this at the time. It's a very bad looking situation for everyone involved. According to this article Maestri has been charged with assault and the ERC are investigating claims that he and other Toulouse players/officials were abused by a group of fans.

http://www.scotsman.com/sport/rugby/top-rugby-stories/court-date-for-toulouse-player-yoann-maestri-over-alleged-fan-assault-1-2234328

It's a very unpleasant story unfortunately. But this is still just alleged retaliation, he's been charged with assault; maybe it's not as bad as that sounds. I don't know. He's obviously been given a summons for a court date in Scotland.

by Portnoy Wed 18 Apr 2012, 7:47 pm

In a crowd of 40000 you are going to get some idiots. That's pretty obvious.

Also given Embra's normal home gate, many of them will never have seen the inside of a rugby ground before.

I hope that CCTV was in place, but I'd take a bet that anyone caught will not be effectively penalised by a life-time ban.

All the above is, of course, pure conjecture.

by **LondonTiger** Wed 18 Apr 2012, 10:49 pm

How long was Brennan banned for?

by **Notch** Wed 18 Apr 2012, 10:55 pm

Five years I think. We don't really know enough to know whether or not this is comparable to be fair.

by Sponsored content

Incident at Murrayfield?

Incident at Murrayfield?

Re: Incident at Murrayfield?

Re: Incident at Murrayfield?

Re: Incident at Murrayfield?

Re: Incident at Murrayfield?

Re: Incident at Murrayfield?

Re: Incident at Murrayfield?

Re: Incident at Murrayfield?