Peter Bills: Lipman's lament makes me sick

Someitmes, simple words uttered by the wrong people just make you want to gag.

Listen to this bleating phrase from former Bath and England flanker Michael Lipman, incensed that his proposed move to the new Super 15 outfit Melbourne Rebels has been blocked by the Australian Rugby Union.

Lipman, just in case you are wondering, is one of the four Bath players who were banned from the game for failing to take a drug test, following allegations of drug-taking at a Bath player event. Justin Harrison, the Australian lock forward, bravely rushed to Heathrow airport and scuttled onto a homeward flight to Sydney, rather than face the music.

A rat deserting the holed ship, perhaps?

Wing Andrew Higgins is said to have packed up the game, centre Alex Crockett has served his 8-month ban and signed for Bristol, and Lipman re-emerged publicly this week. The trio were all banned after twice refusing to take a test that could have cleared their names.

The analogy of sewer water eventually coming to the surface springs to mind. But I doubt whether even that would raise the nauseous type of stink that Lipman's words did this week.

"It's my life. It's my career," cried Lipman, upon hearing the news.

An unfortunate choice of words, those. I do not recall the player uttering them amid the storm that broke over the alleged drug-taking affair. Back then, he was fully prepared to put refusing to take a drug test comfortably ahead of "his life, his career". One wonders why? Surely he couldn't have had anything to hide, could he?

To hear vermin like this trying to regain rugby's moral high ground makes me sick. I wish that Crockett and Lipman would crawl away to the place of disgrace where Higgins has presumably gone, and stop continuing to stain the good name of a game that gave them such riches and prestige.

For Lipman to cry now about his life and career being at stake, just because someone in Australia has woken up to the fact that hiring another guy who refused to take a drugs test would send the worst possible message to the game and young people, is pathetic.

But 'another' guy? Oh yes. The Australian Rugby Union, the very same organisation that this week told Lipman they didn't want him playing in Australian rugby, was the one that sanctioned the return of another member of the so-called 'Bath 4', Justin Harrison, to the Super 14 outfit, the Brumbies.

Surely Harrison was not readmitted because he was Australian? Or was his return a reward for his quick thinking in fleeing the UK and going to ground as fast as possible, when the furore broke? Surely not.

Either way, it seems a curious contradiction that the Australian Rugby Union allows Harrison to play while telling Lipman to clear off. Mind you, Lipman has long since forfeited the right to hold anyone to account by his behaviour at Bath.

For a player who had represented Bath and England to act as he did damaged the great name and jersey of both club and country. The game worldwide would be better off if he packed it up. But then, the same applies to Harrison.

Peter Bills is a rugby writer for Independent News & Media in London