Harlequins legend Danny Care has described the Bloodgate scandal as the darkest period in the club’s history.
Now infamous images of blood pouring from the mouth of winger Tom Williams in Quins’ Heineken Cup quarter-final against Leinster in 2009 rocked the world of rugby.
An investigation found the club guilty of faking blood injuries to make tactical substitutions, resulting in heavy punishments for Williams, director of rugby Dean Richards and physiotherapist Steph Brennan.
“There’s no doubt about it, it’s the darkest time in Harlequins’ history, and rightly so that the punishment was what we got. We deserved it,” Care told BBC Sport London.
“It was happening widespread in the game, I just think Harlequins did it really badly and rightly got caught, and it was stamped out of the game completely.”
He described himself as a naive 22-year-old playing in the biggest game of his career, which ended in defeat for Quins.
