Legal battle on Bath horizon
June 02 2009
England flanker Michael Lipman and Bath team-mates Alex Crockett and Andrew Higgins insist they only resigned because their positions at the club had become untenable.
The three players terminated their contracts on Monday immediately before they were due to appear at a club disciplinary hearing, accused of refusing to take a drugs test on three different occasions.
Bath have been conducting an internal investigation into allegations linked to drug use and fighting at an end-of-season celebration in London on May 10.
But Crockett, Higgins and England flank Lipman issued a joint statement through their solicitor denying they had refused to provide a sample and vowing to clear their names.
"It is with tremendous regret that we announce today that, as a result of the club's actions, we have no option but to terminate our contracts with Bath Rugby with immediate effect," the players said.
"During the course of the last few weeks it has become clear to us that our position within the club has been made untenable.
"We have made every effort to work with the club to resolve our differences. Sadly, we have been unable to do so.
"It has been suggested in sections of the media that we have either missed or refused on three occasions to provide samples for anti-doping purposes. This is simply untrue.
"Anonymous sources have also made allegations against us to the club. We completely refute these allegations, which are both false and defamatory.
"We believe that these scurrilous and unsubstantiated allegations are not only proving to be damaging to our own careers but to rugby as a whole.
"Regrettably, for legal reasons we are unable to comment further at this stage although what we can say is that we will do everything possible in order to clear our names."
Bath have now lost five of their senior players due to off-field matters in the space of just three months. Lipman and Crockett were Bath's co-captains this season.
Justin Harrison's decision to request an early release from his Bath contract and retire from rugby is understood to be linked to the alleged fracas involving Harlequins players in a London pub.
In February, England prop Matt Stevens resigned from Bath before he was sacked after receiving a two-year ban for taking cocaine.
All three players now face a separate Rugby Football Union investigation into the events surrounding their resignations.
Twickenham have requested all the paperwork from Bath and will collect their own statements, with disciplinary manager Bruce Rees-Russell hoping to reach a conclusion within a week.
"The RFU, and our partners at Premier Rugby, work tirelessly to ensure the reputation of the game is protected," read the RFU statement.
"The RFU takes any breaches of discipline and any drugs related allegations very seriously and we have now asked Bath Rugby for all the paperwork associated with their investigation and will be taking our own additional statements.
"The RFU Disciplinary Manager will review all the information before deciding if there is a broader charge for these players to answer under Rule 5.12 for any conduct that is prejudicial to the interests of the game.
"We would expect to complete the RFU investigation within seven days and will update on next steps at that time."