Newcastle Falcons director of rugby Dean Richards handed three-game ban

Newcastle Falcons director of rugby Dean Richards has been handed a three-game ban following his comments on match officials at the end of the recently concluded Gallagher Premiership game against Exeter Chiefs.

Richards questioned the official's decision to red-card Callum Chick during the game after his shoulder made contact with Josh Hodge's head in a strong tackle.

"We've reached a moment in rugby where officials are making quick decisions rather than the correct decision," said Richards after the game.

"If he gives us a yellow card (for Callum Chick) then we accept it, but you can't make such a critical decision in the game as quickly as that and I think it's had a huge impact on the game.

"If we had kept 15 players on the field then I think we would have competed differently in certain situations in the second half, we needed to decide if we should go with seven or eight men in the scrum and then be one light in the backs."

He faced an independent disciplinary hearing with the panel comprising of Martin Picton (chair) with Gareth Graham and Philip Davies was proved guilty of breaching RFU Rule 5.12.

Richards will now miss Newcastle's games against Bath Rugby, Harlequins and Saracens.

“The Panel concluded that the offence was to be dealt with as one arising from disrespect of the authority of a match official and rejected the submission that the words spoken by Dean Richards should be categorised as verbal abuse of the referee," said Panel Chair Martin Picton in a statement released.

"The Panel, however, took the view that as a case of disrespect it was a very serious one given the number of issues raised by Mr Richards and the terms in which he expressed himself. He accepted in the hearing that the words he used were ill-considered, clumsy and expressed with a degree of anger. He expressed himself in disrespectful terms in the course of two separate interviews and he accepted that, absent the context his remarks should have had, they were capable of being misunderstood and thus damaging to the game as a whole.

"Mr Richards must have appreciated that what he said would be widely reported with the consequent potential impact on the referee and his standing in the rugby community, coupled with the importance of maintaining the core values of the game. Accordingly, the panel concluded that the case was properly regarded as one that merited a top-end sanction of six weeks.

"The panel did, however, consider that Mr Richards was entitled to the full available mitigation in the light of his acceptance of the charge, his recognition that he should not have spoken as he did as well as the fact that he intends to proffer a full apology to the referee in question.

"The result was that the panel imposed a thee-match suspension from all match-day coaching duties (meaning he can only attend as a spectator), but also directed that Mr Richards should present to the playing and non-playing members of the club on the topic of the need for respect for match officials and that he should undertake a second presentation to a school or local rugby club of his choice so as to get the same message out at a grassroots level.”