Toulon prop Martin Castrogiovanni called Leicester director of rugby Richard Cockerill a 'c**t' in a stunning post-match outburst on Sunday.
After Leicester's 25-21 win against Toulon in the Pool 3 European Champions Cup match, the Italian explained why he had left the English club at the end of the 2012-13 season.
'I never had the opportunity to defend myself when I left because people talked about this s**t and money and Cockers talks about the money, but the real thing when I left this club is because you have [Dan] Cole and you have me,' said Castrogiovanni.
'Cole gets paid half the money from the RFU and I am foreign. What the f**k you want? You have a good f**king tighthead prop playing for England and a hairy f**king Italian. The thing is that they made it look like I went for the money but I paid £100,000 from my pocket to leave this club because I want to play rugby. That’s it.
'I always love this club and I wanted to clarify and talk face to face, which is something Cockers never does. I think in the last few years people are getting sacked and this club was not like that before. They used to respect people, now they act like nothing is going on. That is not from the club, that is from the guys in charge.
'Everything you do in your life – good or bad – will come back to you and they sack people who have been at this club for 17 years. When I get to this club it was all about the shirt and the badge. It is easy not to talk about the money when you don’t really follow the club. I loved this club and I didn’t leave for the money.
'Fair enough they deserved to win today. They played really well and we didn’t play our standard. They should play their game of lives. I never want to speak with Cockers any more. I am the kind of guy that if I hate you, if you are not clear with me or if you have been a c**t, how you say in English, I never want to speak to you any more. That’s it. That’s how I am. I am not fake. If I hate you, I say in your face and I will never speak to you again. Love me or hate me. I don’t hate anyone. Peace and love. I just don’t like c**ts.
'I thought f**king Leicester were a f**king amateur team. What about that? If they lost another game at home he [Cockerill] was going to get the sack. Everyone wants to win games against us because we are the best and it’s normal. They played quite a good game, they were physical but they’ve just won a game. All they’ve done is win a f**king game. Now they need to come to our home and we’ll see. We’ll see next week what’s going on.
'I just wanted to say that Cockers is talking too much. He’s just won a game and there is still a lot of f**king games to play in this tournament. He was saying that people go for the money but he has a lot of f**king squad players who get paid as well. I paid my own f**king money to leave this club. I don’t need the money to play rugby. I love this game and I used to love this club – I still love this club, but when people are up to here in water, they talk this talk but don’t walk the walk.'
