England great allegedly ‘eye-gouged’ by South African forward as Leicester Tigers ‘cite’ Glasgow Warriors star
Henco Venter and Dan Cole during Glasgow Warriors' Champions Cup victory over Leicester Tigers, and the alleged eye-gouge incident.
Leicester Tigers have reportedly lodged a complaint with Champions Cup officials after allegations of an ‘eye-gouge’ on prop Dan Cole.
A video has emerged following Glasgow Warriors’ dominant victory over the Tigers in the round-of-16 clash at Scotstoun on Saturday.
It sees Cole and Warriors back-row Henco Venter scuffling on the ground. The England tighthead is the instigator as he grabs the South African number eight around the neck, but Venter then moves his arm around and appears to make contact with his opponent’s eye area.
Olly Cracknell went on to score a try in the same passage of play to give the visitors an early lead, but the Warriors and Venter responded, with the forward crossing the whitewash twice and being awarded the player of the match.
Leicester cite Venter
According to the Telegraph, Leicester have raised the issue with the citing commissioner, who will decide whether it is worth formally charging the back-row.
Missed this on comms last night but looks like a gouge by Venter on Dan Cole. Needs looking at….. pic.twitter.com/Q4HyqDq2k4
— Andy Goode (@AndyGoode10) April 6, 2025
The Premiership outfit were ultimately hammered 43-19 by Glasgow, ending their chances in the continental competition with the Scotsmen securing a game against Leinster in the quarter-finals.
They proved far too strong for the Tigers, who barely fired a shot in the first half and then saw their Champions Cup hopes dashed at the start of the second period.
Franco Smith’s men touched down three times in 12 minutes – two of those coming while Leicester lock Cameron Henderson was off the field following a yellow card – to effectively secure their passage into the next round.
It was that sin-binning which particularly angered visiting head coach Michael Cheika as he blamed Henderson’s absence for their poor start to the final 40 minutes.
With the second-row on the sidelines, they botched the restart, and it ultimately led to Sione Vailanu crossing the whitewash for a crucial try.
‘Ridiculous yellow card’
“Well, it was a ridiculous yellow card at half-time and you couldn’t even see what it was for, Henderson couldn’t even tell me what it was for,” Cheika told reporters.
“Therefore, the knock-on effect is Henderson loses his spot in the kick-off, we have to change positions with the others, that creates doubt in the catch.
“The knock-on effect there is we have to play Hanro [Liebenberg] in the second-row and we have to then put the centre at flanker which takes a player out of the defensive line.
“We pushed them backwards in the scrum, we don’t get a penalty for some reason and then they run down the short side where our bloke should have been.”
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