Rob Howley, the former Wales and Lions attack coach, has been banned for 18 months, half of which is suspended, for breaching betting rules. An independent disciplinary panel found he had made 363 bets covering more than 1,000 matches, including a few involving Wales, for a period of 45 months from November 2015.
The three-member panel, which was chaired by a former high‑court judge, Sir Wyn Williams, was told that Howley, who was sent home from Wales’s World Cup campaign in Japan after the Welsh Rugby Union received details of his betting activity, held accounts with three bookmakers and used his WRU mobile phone and email address to place bets.
The WRU opened an investigation after one of the companies with which Howley had an account, Betway, contacted the union’s policy and integrity manager, Jeremy Rogers, to say Howley had placed bets on matches “involving Welsh national teams in breach of World Rugby’s regulation six”, which covers corruption and betting.
Julie Paterson, the WRU’s operations director, was appointed the anti‑corruption officer and flew to Japan to meet Howley, along with the union’s chief executive, Martyn Phillips. “Without being prompted, Mr Howley acknowledged that he had been engaged in betting in breach of the regulations,” said the report by the panel which convened last Monday.
Howley was sent home and on 5 October was charged by the WRU with “betting on the outcome and/or any aspect of an event by a connected person and receiving part or all of the proceeds of such betting”. The details of the charge read: “During the period of 13 November 2015 and 7 September 2019, as the Welsh Rugby Union national squad assistant coach, you placed 364 bets on rugby union, featuring 1,163 matches in total, using accounts held with Betway, William Hill and Ladbrokes, registered in your name, and received the proceeds [or part of the proceeds] of the successful bets.”
The number of bets was reduced by one before the start of the hearing which took place at the Principality Stadium, scene of so many triumphs as a player and as a coach for Howley, not least the final match of the 2013 Six Nations when he was in charge with Warren Gatland on a Lions sabbatical and Wales thrashed England to secure the title.
The panel noted that Howley was honest about his activities. Paterson notes during one recorded meeting on 23 September recorded that Howley “was visibly upset throughout” and said: “I’m putting my hands up. If I was being evasive, I would not have used my works mobile phone and email account.”
Paterson submitted her report at the end of November. It noted that Howley admitted placing a bet before Wales’s grand slam match against Ireland in Cardiff last March on a Welsh player being the first try scorer. “He was at pains to point out that it was part of a treble bet, part and parcel of his normal recreational betting activity. He admitted he knew he was in breach of the regulations to bet on matches involving Wales as well as other rugby matches.”
The panel noted: “Mr Howley answered every question which was put to him. He did not seek to avoid responsibility for what he had done. He was clearly remorseful and very anxious about the effect his actions was having on his family.”
The investigation found that Howley placed 200 bets with William Hill, 150 with Betway and 13 with Ladbrokes. “These bets were sometimes placed as single bets (168 occasions) but on the other occasions they were placed as parts of ‘doubles’, ‘trebles’ and ‘accumulators’. Of the 363 bets, 24 were placed on “connected events” as defined in the regulations.
“Some of those bets involved matches in which Wales was participating and two of the bets were placed upon two individuals representing Wales. The first such bet in time was that a named player would be a try scorer during the course of a named international match. The second bet was that a named player would be the first try scorer during the course of a named international match.
“The players who were the subjects of the bets were interviewed by Ms Paterson. They both denied any knowledge of the bets and there is no reason to think that their denials are not genuine. Mr Howley is adamant that the players had no knowledge of the bets.”
Experts were hired to assess various devices used by Howley and the WRU concluded that he had not been supplying information to a third party. “We are satisfied that the picture uncovered by WRU is of a man who placed a very significant number of prohibited bets during a period of about five years,” said the report.
“We are also satisfied that Mr Howley made no gains, overall, from these bets. In fact, the WRU assess that overall Mr Howley made losses of approximately £4,000.”
The panel said it was in no doubt that Howley was sincere in his remorse and that he had not placed a bet since September and that “with the help of a consultant psychologist he was confident that he would desist from betting in the future.”
Howley faced a maximum ban of five years, but as his betting had been for personal gain and not involved passing on inside information, mitigating factors were available to the panel.
The panel, which received “powerful” letters from leading figures in the game who had worked with Howley, Sir Ian McGeechan, Gatland and the Wales centre Jonathan Davies, decided that Howley’s actions merited more than the minimum six-month suspension and gave him 18 months, with half of it suspended. The ban is backdated to the date of his suspension and he will be able to resume his career on 16 June, although the panel noted the affair had put a “very significant strain on his health” and that a punitive punishment “would likely impact adversely on his well-being”.
