There's been a bit of a row brewing between Martin Castrogiovanni and his former club Leicester Tigers for the past while. The Italian left the Premiership side in the off-season having bought out his own contract to force through a move to Toulon. Castrogiovanni was a popular figure at Leicester to the extent that he continues to own a couple of restaurant's in the city, one with which he co-owns with Geordan Murphy.
However, his relationship with Leicester director of rugby Richard Cockerill is strained to say the least. The 31 year old fell behind Dan Cole in the pecking order and assumed he would be allowed to leave for Toulon when they came calling.
It seems the ongoing disagreement has come to a head this evening. During the press conference following Leicester defeat of the French side Castrogiovanni stormed in and delivered the kind of quote regarding Cockerill that really is worthy of a poorly thought out tattoo. Thankfully The Telegraph's Daniel Schofield who was good enough to share this absolute gem.
Quote of the year from Martin Castrogiovanni on Richard Cockerill: "I don’t hate anyone. Peace and love. I just don’t like cunts."
— Daniel Schofield (@danscho1) December 7, 2014
More Castro on Cockers: "if you are not clear with me or if you have been a cunt, how you say in English, I never want to speak to you" — Daniel Schofield (@danscho1) December 7, 2014
According to the Daily Mail, that was just the start of things. The Italian went on to deny Cockerill's suggestions that he left purely because of the money on offer in France. Instead, he gave the brilliant response that Dan Cole simply took his place in the squad.
Cole paid gets paid half the money from the RFU and I am foreign. What the fuck you want? You have a good fucking tighthead prop playing for England and a hairy fat 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.
