1
ARU investigating Higginbotham incident
By Peter Thompson
The Australian Rugby Union (ARU) has launched an investigation after Queensland Reds number eight Scott Higginbotham was reportedly arrested for assaulting a police officer on Sunday.
Higginbotham, capped 32 times by Australia, is also reported to be facing a charge of entering a police establishment without a lawful excuse following an incident in Brisbane and is set to appear in court on February 21.
ARU chief executive officer Bill Pulver said in a statement released by the governing body: "The Queensland Rugby Union has today referred a matter to the ARU integrity unit concerning an incident involving Reds player Scott Higginbotham in Brisbane last night.
"The ARU integrity unit has subsequently launched an investigation into the incident today.
"As the matter is currently with Queensland Police, no further comment will be made at this time."
Higginbotham, 30, recently returned to the Queensland Super Rugby franchise following a spell with NEC Green Rockets in Japan.
Trending on RugbyPass
2
Jake White: Ireland, Australia and Wales have the same problem
3
David Campese names his Springbok world player of the year winner
4
Let's be real about these All Blacks
5
Latest Comments
GB is England, Scotland, Wales. They are the 3 constituent countries in Great Britain. Ergo playing only those three countries is a tour of GB. The difference between GB and the UK is Northern Ireland. It's not a huge deal to be accurate and call places by their correct name. But please refrain from your idiotic attempts to BS that GB=UK. It doesn't.
Go to commentsThe 2023 draw was only criticized when it became apparent that the top 5 sides in the world were on the same side of the draw. Nowhere did they discuss the decision to backtrack to 2019 rankings which ensured that England and Wales (ranked #12 in 2023) were ranked top4.
The parties who trashed out the schedule were England Rugby, NZ Rugby and ITV. It is bordering on corrupt that a Rugby nation has the power to schedule its opponents to play a major match the week before facing them in a QF.
You won't find commentary by members of the relevant committees because a committee did not make the scheduling decision. I have never heard members of World Rugby speak out on the draw or scheduling issues.
For example in 2015 Japan were hammered by Scotland 4 days after beating SA. The criticism only happens after a cock up.
A fair pool schedule is pretty straightforward: The lowest two tanked teams must play on last pool day but not against each other. That means that TV can focus on promoting big matches with a Tier2 involved for that Friday.
Why does NZ Always get its preferred slot playing the hardest pool match on day 1?
Why do other teams eg France, Ireland, Scotland get so often scheduled to play a hard match the week before the QFs?
If you believe the rules around scheduling are transparent then please point me in the right direction?
Go to comments