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Delon Armitage on the Welford Road crowd incident that saw him banned for 12-weeks
By Stefan Frost
Delon Armitage has addressed an altercation he had with a Leicester fan which resulted in him getting a 12-week suspension.
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Armitage was accused of shouting expletives at someone in the crowd after Toulon lost to Leicester Tigers in the Champions Cup at Welford Road back in 2014.
The Toulon back already had a reputation for facing disciplinary issues which influenced the eventual ruling made by the EPCR.
When he appeared recently on the Offload, Armitage gave his side of the story and recounted how the incident was blown out of proportion.
“I actually got called up for two things at the time. The first was someone from the crowd reported that I had called them an ‘inbred’. At the disciplinary hearing they said they’ve got witnesses for it. I said: ‘That’ll be brilliant. Tell me when and show me such videos’.
“Drew Mitchell was with me and came as a witness as he was in the videos. The witness didn’t even come [in person], they were on the phone and didn’t answer.
“Then three people came in. One was an uncle, one was a cousin and one was a sister.”
Dylan admitted he struggled not to laugh when confronted with the family cohort.
“To be fair the barristers said we can’t have that so they moved onto the other allegation.”
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The second incident which Armitage had to answer for involved a back and forth between him and a Tigers fan at the side of the pitch.
“So I walked across the field. I was having a chat with Geordan Murphy at the time. As we got across there were a couple of lads with beers in the stands.”
“As I’m signing autographs they shout: ‘Oi Steffon, Steffon.’
“As you know I hate that because it’s someone saying I’m short, can’t grow and eat lots of food. I’m not having that,” Armitage said, poking fun at his brother’s size and physique.
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“I said to one of them: ‘You must be loads of fun on the piss.’ I probably then said: ‘You’re tough here with your mates in the stand. Let’s go round the corner in the car park and see how tough you are.’
“And that was it. The steward was there and told them to leave it, but he wasn’t allowed to come to be a witness.
“I remember reading the paper the next day and someone had put that I said I was going to rip his face off. Where did that even come from?”
Armitage was later found guilty of verbal misconduct and given a lengthy 12-week ban. In response to this the former England international lodged an appeal and did not end up serving the full 12-week suspension.
“I got banned for four or five weeks. It was just a verbal back and forth.”
Armitage was not too dented by the decision and saw the comical side in things, choosing to wear a t-shirt with the words ‘Why always me?’ written across it. The item of clothing was influenced by Italian footballer Mario Balotelli who famously lifted up his match shirt after scoring a goal to reveal the same three-word slogan printed on an undergarment.
Balotelli, like Armitage, had a reputation for making headlines for the wrong reasons.
“That was my favourite t-shirt for a while,” Armitage said.
