England staff kicked into touch after illegally switching balls in World Cup cheating storm

Two key members of Martin Johnson’s senior management team have been suspended by the Rugby Football Union after England found themselves embroiled in another World Cup cheat storm.

Jonny Wilkinson’s mentor, Dave Alred, and fitness specialist Paul Stridgeon were found to have illegally switched balls during England’s 67-3 victory over Romania.

Both Alred, the world-renowned kicking coach, and Stridgeon have been banned from entering Eden Park for tomorrow’s decisive Pool B showdown with Scotland.

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The RFU were forced to act on ‘ballgate’ after England became the subject of a misconduct investigation by Rugby World Cup Limited (RWCL).

Alred and Stridgeon were found to have switched the ball Wilkinson was due to kick with on a number of occasions, without requesting permission from referee Romain Poite.

An RFU statement read: “Those team management members took it upon themselves to substitute balls during the match in contravention of both the laws of the game and the spirit of the game.

“The RFU fully accepts that the action of those team management members was incorrect and detrimental to the image of the tournament, the game and to English rugby.

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“The RFU has, therefore, decided to reprimand those team management members, to warn them as to their future conduct and to suspend them from participation in England’s next game.”

RWCL confirmed England will face no further sanctions, having been satisfied with the RFU’s response – even though it meant no official questions were asked about how much Wilkinson or Johnson knew.

Immediately after the match, Johnson said he had not been aware of the issue at the time England were warned by Poite to “desist”. Wilkinson left the stadium without commenting.

Johnson said yesterday: “If we feel a ball is not 100 per cent we’ll ask for it to be changed. You have to ask the referee. If he says ‘yes’, you can. If he says ‘no’, you can’t.

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“We didn’t ask him. It’s unfortunate we have had to take this action but ultimately there was a breach of the laws of the game.

“But it’s happened, some action has been taken, and we have to move on.”

Eight years ago, England’s triumphant World Cup campaign could have been derailed after they briefly fielded 16 men in the pool victory over Samoa.

England were hauled before a disciplinary hearing in Sydney and narrowly escaped a points deduction.

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But they were fined £10,000 and had fitness coach Dave Reddin banned for two matches for a verbal altercation with fourth official Steve Walsh.

This latest brush with authority comes after an eventful World Cup campaign for England, which has seen Johnson face down criticism over his players’ conduct on a drunken night out in Queenstown.

Wilkinson missed five consecutive penalties against Argentina and his strike rate is 50 per cent, which has brought the quality of the balls into question.

Although England have been using the current Gilbert ball since the autumn of 2010, World Cup regulations state the match balls are to be used for the first time in the short captain-led training session on the eve of the game.

As a result, some balls are not as ‘kicked-in’ as players would like, meaning they can be too hard and therefore difficult to control.