Championship bust-up sees ex-England hooker Cairns cop 12-game ban

Former England hooker Matt Cairns recently copped a 12-game ban following his behaviour towards match officials during a Championship defeat for Caldy at Doncaster Knights. The 45-year-old, who won his only Test cap away to South Africa in 2007, coached the Wirral club to a wonderful promotion two seasons ago.

They finished 10th last season in their first-ever Championship campaign, winning seven of their 22 matches in the 12-team league. This season, the wins have been tougher to come by in the 11-team division as Caldy have just four victories so far in 17 matches.

Their most recent defeat came at home to leaders Ealing on April 20, an 18-49 reverse that Cairns was not involved in due to what unfolded the previous Sunday when Caldy were defeated 7-29 away to Doncaster.

He was charged with conduct prejudicial to the interests of the union and/or the game and the ensuing April 17 disciplinary hearing resulted in a 12-game ban for the former Harlequins, Northampton Saints, Sale Sharks, and Saracens forward.

The full written verdict from the hearing has since been added to the disciplinary section of the RFU website and the 15-page report, which included a victim impact statement from the match referee Michael Hudson, was quite a detailed read.

In finding Cairns guilty of prejudicial conduct, the disciplinary hearing committee decided that the appropriate sanction was a period of suspension from being a coach on match day combined with the former front-rower having to undertake restorative acts in return for an element of his sanction being suspended.

The verdict read: “For the next 12 meaningful matches, Mr Cairns is prohibited from attending any rugby club where any of Caldy RFC’s senior teams are playing; including all private and public areas, whether or not rugby activities are being conducted within those areas.

“And 2) For the next 12 meaningful matches, Mr Cairns is prohibited from performing any match day rugby activity linked to any senior men’s or women’s rugby team, including, but not limited to: a. Coaching of any kind (including remotely); b. Travelling with the squad; and c. Playing.

“If, on or before Monday, September 9, Mr Cairns sends to the RFU head of discipline, satisfactory evidence demonstrating that he has refereed at least three full matches of age grade rugby (players aged between U16s down to U12s and individual matches of at least 30 minutes duration), and that he has completed at least two hours of additional referee training provided by either the RFU or his local referee’s society, then the final four weeks of sanctions 1 and 2 will be suspended until the conclusion of all disciplinary matters in the 2024/25 season.”

In the victim impact statement by referee Hudson, a teacher who has been involved in the professional game for eight years, it was outlined: “I don’t think I have ever been part of a match official abuse incident like this before.

“To have my impartiality questioned hurts. The implication that I have favoured a team over another for any reason, is really damaging – both from a reputational and personal perspective. To have my performance be very publicly labelled as incompetent in front of spectators hurts too, especially from a man of standing in the game like an ex-England international as Matt Cairns is.

“But I came away from the game on Sunday night with the overriding feeling of disappointment. Disappointment that the game had been dominated and overshadowed for us by a coach’s behaviour and attitude, rather than anything else…”

“Having reflected upon it at length over the next 48 hours, I am actually quite angry… It gradually dawned on me in our review discussions that almost every one of the incidents that Matt Cairns had been furious and had outbursts over – in-match and post-match – we felt actually had been correct decisions. There is no excuse for match official abuse at all.

“I am empathetic enough to see that officials’ errors – if they are errors - can cause understandable frustration for coaches. But when the abuse on a touchline is as it was on Sunday, yet those ‘controversial’ decisions are in the main correct on review in the cold light of day, then frustration turns to anger.”

• Click here to read the 15-page written verdict from the Matt Cairns disciplinary hearing