Both the reputation and the bank balance of Harlequins have been severely damaged by the fake blood scandal involving one of their players during the Heineken Cup quarter-final against Leinster, the club's chief executive admitted today.
Harlequins have been fined £258,000 by European Rugby Cup Ltd and their erstwhile director of rugby, Dean Richards, has been banned from the sport for three years. The fine, increased from £215,000 on appeal, will stretch the finances as construction of a new stand at The Stoop nears completion and they make plans for a new training ground. Mark Evans said it is too early to assess the repercussions, but he said changes will have to be made.
"We are going to have to make some adjustments. It was quite a stretch here for us anyway; we're hoping to move to a new training ground in Guildford and signed the agreement to move down there in June. We've got the South Stand going up and that is quite a big capital project in terms of installation, so it was a pretty tight year anyway.
"I think it is common knowledge that we have a significant bank debt which needs servicing," added Evans, who is hoping the club's match against Wasps at Twickenham next month can draw a capacity crowd to relieve the financial pressure on a club whose reputation, he admits, as been severely tarnished. "We've taken a huge reputational hit and that is going to take a long time to repair, and we're going to have to work very, very hard to do it."
He was referring to the upshot of the incident last April when the Quins wing Tom Williams used a blood capsule to fake a mouth injury to allow the drop-kick specialist Nick Evans to return to the field with the London club trailing the eventual European champions, Leinster, by a point.
"I think it is unbelievably sad, but I would because I know these people and so my reaction is much more personal. I don't want that to be perceived as me thinking the right action has not been taken, because I do," he said. "It was a perfect storm, they are not bad people."
Evans said he would not be rushed into finding Richards' replacement and he did not rule out the possibility of abolishing the role of director of rugby and restructuring the staff: "We haven't made any decisions about how Dean will be replaced. We might replace him like for like, we might restructure, we really haven't decided."
The former England No8's salary was in the region of £260,000 – the amount the club was fined – so the removal of his post would be one way to relieve financial pressures. The season begins on 5 September and the coaching staff, lead by John Kingston, will take control of team affairs.
"It's not an ideal start to pre-season when you lose your director of rugby and one of your players is banned for four months," said the senior player Nick Easter. "One of the main attributes of the squad last year was the belief in each other and the strong feeling that everyone had for each other. We're a very close unit and I think events have contributed to that being even stronger."
