Former Wales assistant coach Rob Howley banned from rugby for 9 months for betting rules breach

Former Wales assistant coach Rob Howley has been banned from rugby for nine months for breaching betting rules, including putting money on a player in his team scoring a try during a Six Nations match.

Howley received an 18-month ban from the Welsh Rugby Union but nine months were suspended.

Howley, who played 59 times for Wales as a scrumhalf and also captained his country, was sent home from the Rugby World Cup in Japan in September after an investigation was launched.

Howley was found to have placed 363 bets with three separate bookmakers covering a total of 1,163 rugby matches over a period of five years.

BREAKING: Rob Howley suspended from rugby for 18 months as full details of betting scandal emergehttps://t.co/LVXtRwR0VY

— WalesOnline Rugby (@WalesRugby) December 16, 2019

Some of them involved matches involving Wales and two of them included betting on players representing Wales scoring tries.

In one bet, he put money on a Wales player — who was not named — being the first try scorer in a Six Nations match against Ireland in March 2019.

Both the players who were the subjects of the bets were interviewed, with the judgment saying they "denied any knowledge of the bets.

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