Peter Jackson: Stat watch – Gareth Chilcott still top as French clubs racking up the most cards

Peter Jackson breaks the news to Gareth Chilcott that his six sendings-off during his career is still a record

After more than 30 years in splendid isolation, Gareth Chilcott’s serene reign at the top of rugby’s hit parade still shows no sign of ending any time soon.

For sheer longevity, his run leaves some very famous people a very long way behind, most notably those who have made multi-millions from biffing a little white ball around the fairways of the world.

Tiger Woods only lasted 683 weeks as the No.1 golfer in the world, a mere 13 years which makes him look a bit of a fly-by-night compared to a veteran of the biff business, the immovable Mr Cooch of Bath and England renown.

Rory McIlroy managed a month or two short of two years as one of Woods’ successors in a position reserved for the outrageously blessed sultans of swing.

Joe Louis ruled the global ringside roost as world heavyweight champion for almost 12 years; Joe Calzaghe reigned supreme among middleweights for ten years before running out of contenders.

Gareth Chilcott

Chilcott, below, has been top of his particular tree since 1993 not that he knew it until the penny dropped during a conversation with The Rugby Paper.

No, he had never been shown a red card for the simple reason that they hadn’t been invented.

Yes, he had been sent-off six times, all in the line of duty for Bath. His retirement left every aspiring serial offender a target to aim at.

In the three decades since a few went within stomping distance of threatening the Bristolian’s lofty status only to fall short.

None tracked him more doggedly than Jamie Cudmore, the tough-as-old-boots Canadian enforcer whose five reds and 35 yellows took him closest to a full deck of cards.

Cudmore’s French equivalent, Pascal Pape, racked up the same amount of sendings-off and only three fewer sin-binnings.

Sergio Parisse, the Michelangelo of No.8s despite splurging the occasional canvas through fits of frustration, retired, like Cudmore and Pape, on five.

So, too, did England’s formidable tighthead Julian White, a member of the World Cup-winning squad who has long abandoned the scrum for the greener pastures of his cattle farm in Leicestershire.

“So that means I’ve still got the cap, still top of the table?”

Chilcott asked, mildly surprised to receive confirmation that his position has survived the traumas of yet another season.

Still number one

“I’m not particularly proud of it. It was a different game in those days. I was sent off six times and one of four players banned by England after the 1987 match against Wales in Cardiff.

“I missed out on a lot of caps through ill discipline. I learnt the hard way that it was impossible to play rugby if you were suspended.”

The man himself will not exactly be rejoicing to learn that the No.1 contender in the Red Mist top ten has been forced into retirement at 32.

Paul Willemse, the only player with five reds to make the starting grid for the Top 14 last September, endured the galling experience of being stuck there all season.

The France second row managed barely half an hour during two early appearances in Montpellier’s Top 14 campaign.

The second ended after a matter of minutes with another concussion, his sixth in not much more than a year.

That led to a three-month rest, followed by a further three-month rest in the New Year which meant missing the entire Six Nations as well as the autumn Tests.

Wiped out of what remained of the season, Willemse chose to retire at 32 after ten years in the most demanding of all leagues.

Other Contenders

The South African had been sent off twice the previous season, for France against Ireland and Montpellier against Ulster in the Champions Cup.

Jonathan Danty, who suffered from a simultaneously dubious double for club and country, also missed all eight France Tests this time around.

Willemse’s exit leaves only one player within striking distance of Chilcott, Adrea Cocagi. Castres’ Fijian centre began the season with a fourth red, against Tonga in the Pacific Nations Cup, followed by a fifth some six weeks later against Stade Francais.

Having kept on the right side of the law since, Cocagi finishes the campaign one ahead of six internationals: Will Skelton (Australia), Tomas Lavanini (Argentina), Tanginoa Halaifunoua (Tonga), Baptiste Pesenti and Danty (both France).

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