The European Champions Cup authorities are investigating comments made by the Toulon prop Martin Castrogiovanni immediately after his side's defeat to Leicester on Sunday following a complaint by the Tigers.
The Italian, who spent seven years at Welford Road before leaving for France last year, launched an expletive-laden attack on his former director of rugby Richard Cockerill after asking to speak to reporters from the British media.
Castrogiovanni issues an apology on Monday afternoon, before Toulon had been told by European Professional Club Rugby whether the 33-year old would face a misconduct charge for his remarks.
The governing body is investigating a second complaint by Leicester that Toulon’s England international fullback Delon Armitage allegedly directed abusive language at spectators after leaving the pitch at half-time.
Castrogiovanni said after the match, the first time he had returned to the ground since moving to France, that he was angry at suggestions he had joined Toulon for money, pointing out that he had paid £100,000 out of his own pocket to free himself from the final year of his contract with Leicester. His apology was for the language he used rather than the sentiments he expressed.
“First of all I want to make amends for my profanity and apologise to everyone feeling offended by what I said. I’m sorry if my words have created misunderstandings. It also was not my intention to offend anyone, but only to point out my position after some statements,” he said.
“I hate lies and hypocrisy. I have always been a loyal person and I have been loyal to all the people I worked with. I felt to be attacked but moreover Toulon was attacked and my feelings were I had to protect my team from yet another provocation.
“I have always loved the Tigers. I grew up there and spent seven wonderful years, unique. Leicester supporters have made me feel at home, a beautiful piece of my heart is still there and when I went away it was not because of my will. I love rugby and the only thing I want to do is play, so I went to France, at Toulon, one of the best teams in the world.”
Castrogiovanni said during his outburst that he never wanted to speak to Cockerill again. His former boss was phlegmatic in his response, calling the prop a Leicester icon and predicting that they would one day have a beer together and joke about it, but the club itself was less forgiving and raised the temperature ahead of the return match in Toulon on Saturday by making the two complaints and setting the disciplinary process in motion.
Castrogiovanni’s remarks were on newspaper websites within an hour of being uttered, contained in notebooks and on tape recordings, so the decision for EPCR is whether his words could be considered to have brought the game into disrepute.
The allegation against Armitage, who was banned for eight weeks in 2011 for verbally and physically abusing an anti-doping official when he was playing for London Irish, will take more time to investigate and witnesses will have to come forward.
(Guardian Service)
