Fake A Bloody Injury? That's A Suspendin'

Curt Schilling says Harlequins are doing it wrong. Who can forget his "heroic" 2004 bloody sock stunt? He saved Boston and sentenced the rest of America to a lifetime of hearing from insufferable Red Sox fans. The sock is already enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame along with George Brett's pine tar bat. Maybe Brett's bat is in the Royals Hall of Fame but it's a still a hall albeit with much less fame. Where will Harlequins' Tom Williams fit into the history of great cheaters? Somewhere between Bill Belichek and Albert Belle.

Williams was suspended for 12 months by an independent disciplinary panel for faking a bloody injury in order to effect a substitution.

Williams and the club were both found guilty of fabricating a cut to the mouth in order to allow substituted fly-half Nick Evans to return to the field with five minutes remaining.

Television cameras spotted Williams winking towards the bench with 'blood' smeared around his mouth.

Two members of the team's medical team had misconduct charges dismissed which seems a bit suspect. Did Williams have fake blood on him before the medics came out to "assist" him? He couldn't have hatched the plan himself. The director of rugby was also cleared although the club was fined £215,000 half of which is suspended for two years. Someone else had a hand in this subterfuge fail but we may never know the full details until Williams has an author ghostwrite his inevitably uninteresting autobiography. See Cashley Cole.