Former London Welsh team manager Mike Scott banned from rugby for life

Former London Welsh team manager Mike Scott has been banned for life from any involvement in rugby union for his role in the events that led to the club fielding an ineligible player in the Aviva Premiership, the Rugby Football Union has confirmed.

London Welsh were this week deducted five points and fined £15,000 for fielding ineligible player Tyson Keats.

A further five-point deduction is suspended until the end of next season and will only be activated if the club breach regulations again during that period.

New Zealander Keats, 31, has played 10 Premiership games for Welsh this season and London Welsh are lodging an appeal against the ruling.

After Keats’ ancestry visa was apparently rejected, then team manager Scott falsified a player registration form by stating Keats was English and had been born in Christchurch.

After the ruling on Scott, an RFU statement said: “Mike Scott is suspended from the management, coaching or playing of rugby football union in any capacity or from membership of any club affiliated to the RFU for life.

“He may not apply to vary this order for a minimum period of 10 years (until after 7 March 2023).”

Chairman of London Welsh RFC, Bleddyn Phillips, commenting on the Decision of the RFU Panel of Inquiry issued on Thursday evening and yesterday’s decision of His Honour Judge Jeff Blackett at the Misconduct Hearing relating to its former Team Manager Mike Scott, states:

“I can confirm that London Welsh RFC (the ‘Club’) is appealing the Decision of the RFU Panel and would like to thank its supporters and numerous well wishers for their sympathy and understanding regarding what the Club considers was an unnecessarily harsh and disproportionate sanction imposed on it by the RFU Panel of Inquiry.

The Club, and indeed the RFU, was the unwitting victim of a fraudulent act which the Club sought to address in the appropriate manner as soon as it became aware of it.

It takes exception to the comment by the Chairman of the Panel, Mr Summers, in the RFU press statement released on Thursday evening, that ‘the matter..included conduct that was dealt with by the police..’ which might by some be taken as implying that the Club itself was somehow complicit in such conduct. In fact, it was the Club itself which had unearthed the fraudulent act by its former Team Manager, and reported it immediately to the police (and the RFU).

As a result, the individual in question has been cautioned by the police and, at a Misconduct Hearing yesterday, has been suspended for life from the game of Rugby Union by His Honour Judge Jeff Blackett, who noted that this individual had dishonestly misled both the Club and the RFU. As the Misconduct Hearing itself reported yesterday, this is a very sad case where discredit has been brought upon the individual concerned and the Club. Any suggestion that the Club had any complicity in these criminal acts would be false and unfair.

Similarly unfair and harsh is the suggestion in the Decision of the RFU Panel that the Club was somehow acting intentionally in the matter and had authorised the actions of its Team Manager. This was clearly not the case as was recognised also in the decision yesterday of HHJ Jeff Blackett. Further, the club has, in the course of the season, properly and expeditiously registered a number of overseas players demonstrating it does have controls and checks in place. What it could not do was stop a deliberately fraudulent act which was concealed from it and the RFU by its former Team Manager.

We can be rightly proud of the way the Club, and the players and coaching staff in particular, have performed throughout the season notwithstanding the financial and operational challenges arising as a result of the Club’s late entrance as a newcomer into the Premiership last summer. This point was also recognised in yesterday’s decision.

We will continue to give of our best for the remaining games of the season notwithstanding the obvious impact on the morale of players and supporters alike of such a Decision by the RFU Panel.”

Former London Welsh team manager Mike Scott banned from rugby for life