Bryan Redpath, the Gloucester head coach, said he would support a Premiership code of conduct for players using social network sites as his Samoan centre, Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu, faces the activation of a six-month suspended ban for remarks he made on Twitter during the World Cup.
Fuimaono-Sapolu was on Monday banned for three weeks by the Rugby Football Union for using Twitter to criticise the Saracens fly-half Owen Farrell and on 20 November he will have an appeal hearing after an International Rugby Board disciplinary panel last month punished him for comments he made about the referee Nigel Owens.
The 31-year-old faces having the suspended suspension implemented in full, which would rule him out for the rest of the season, if the appeal panel decides that his continued use of Twitter to make what are deemed inappropriate comments amounts to a breach of the conditions imposed on him last month.
"Eliota is one of the best 12s in the world and I just want to see him playing rugby," said Redpath. "The club took internal disciplinary action against him last week and I think we have reached the end point. I am sick of talking about this and not some good performances by Gloucester players in recent weeks. He has been very quiet on Twitter since last week and that is where I want him to be. We have rules in the club that you do not talk about x, y and z on social media sites: it is an area that is very difficult to monitor, but if control needs to get stronger on the back of this, and everyone buys into it, there is no reason for me to say we will not follow suit. Values in rugby have not changed, but society and technology have.
"Has the game moved to a level we are in control of? Probably not. It is very difficult to stop people saying certain things. There is a lot of media attention around Twitter and the game of rugby is not looking happy and rosy. The positives are being sidetracked, rubbish is being stirred up and it is exhausting."
Fuimaono-Sapolu will miss Sunday's Heineken Cup opener in Toulouse, but his co-centre Mike Tindall, who endured a difficult World Cup for different reasons, is set to play, with Redpath demanding that the midfielder show that his focus is on Gloucester.
"Mike needs to keep pushing on and putting pressure on himself to perform to a higher level every week," said Redpath. "I am not going to go on about the England thing because the World Cup has gone. He is training hard, knows that he cannot cut corners and that he has to go out and prove many people wrong. They all want their photograph with him and talk nicely to him but when he plays poorly for his nation he gets criticised. Quite rightly so and he has to take the ups and downs, the claps and the slaps in the chops. All I am interested in is Mike performing well for Gloucester."
Redpath said he had a brief conversation with the England team manager Martin Johnson about his players after the World Cup. Johnson's position is expected to be decided in the next three weeks with the former South Africa and Italy coach Nick Mallett admitting he would be interested if a vacancy arose.
England will play four internationals at Twickenham in November next year. Fiji start off the series on 10 November, followed by Australia, South Africa and New Zealand on successive Saturdays.
