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English rugby must rebuild its tarnished reputation after a series of high-profile disciplinary cases, Rugby Football Union (RFU) chief executive Francis Baron said on Thursday.

Former England forward Dean Richards was banned for three years this week for his role in faking a blood injury to wing Tom Williams during a Heineken Cup quarter-final in April while in his role as director of rugby at Harlequins.

That followed the nine-month bans handed out to former Bath players Alex Crockett, Michael Lipman and Andrew Higgins for missing two separate drugs tests and former England prop Matt Stevens' two-year ban for taking cocaine.

"It's clearly been a difficult few weeks. We have had two very high-profile disciplinary cases in England involving two of our most successful clubs, Bath and Harlequins, and clearly those issues, have harmed the image of rugby union in England and elsewhere," Baron said in an RFU statement.

"Clear decisions have been taken in both those cases and we are now moving to make sure that there is no repetition of those events and, in parallel, working to restore the image of rugby union to where we all want it to be.

"Rugby is growing around the world very rapidly and in England we are the fastest growing major sport.

"We have excellent support from commercial partners and our financial position remains robust and strong. But we do have to address the recent issues. I believe that we have the right plans in place to do that."

The RFU moved quickly on Tuesday to uphold the three-year ban on Richards imposed by European Rugby Cup (ERC) after the incident against Leinster when a mouth injury to Williams was faked so that specialist kicker Nick Evans could replace him.

Williams was banned for four months while Harlequins and England physio Steph Brennan received a two-year ban. All three bans are global.

With rugby's image under the microscope, Baron promised new measures to clean up the game.

"Over the next couple of months we will be rolling out programmes to make sure we restore the image of the game to where we all want it to be ... and for everyone to see the values we expect all sections of the game to adopt and embrace," he said.

(Source: Reuters)