Northern Edition
Select Edition
Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Andy Goode brands Harlequins player an 'absolute coward' and Twitter row ensues

Chris Robshaw came to the defence of hooker Dave Ward

Former England international and RugbyPass columnist Andy Goode has branded a Harlequins player an absolute coward on Twitter.

ADVERTISEMENT

Harlequins ran out 20-13 victors over Wasps in front of a sell-out crowd at Twickenham, but an ugly incident in the 12th minute involving Dave Ward marred the game.

Goode posted pictures of Ward apparently spitting on, then stamping on the ankle of Wasps hooker Thomas Young in the ‘Big Game’ at Twickenham yesterday.

The incident was picked up by the referee and Ward was yellow carded.

Goode wasn’t happy and last night tweeted: “Pretty conclusive pictures here of Dave Ward spitting directly at Thomas Young whilst looking at him before his premeditated trample on his ankle. Absolute coward”.

Goode also tagged Ward in the Tweet.

https://twitter.com/AndyGoode10/status/1079141189264293889

The Tweet was called out by both David Flatman and injured Harlequins captain Chris Robshaw.

Flatman responded saying: “Annoying and stupid, yes, but I don’t subscribe to it being cowardly. Garforth and Rowntree did far worse to me as a youngster, would you call them cowards? I certainly wouldn’t.”

Former England captain Robshaw wrote: “You’re entitled to your opinion, but to @ him the way you have because of your own personal agenda isn’t play on.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Harlequins Kyle Sinckler also came to the defence of Ward, tweeting: “Some of the abuse Dave Ward is getting is a complete disgrace. I can vouch for him he would never do anything in that manner intentionally. You are ruining such a special occasion for premiership rugby with your abuse.”

Sinckler himself was then abused by a small number of fans for the tweet, and he retweeted several of them.

https://twitter.com/MeinNameIstDan/status/1079118522377211904

ADVERTISEMENT
Play Video
LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Long Reads

Comments on RugbyPass

G
GrahamVF 19 minutes ago
The times are changing, and some Six Nations teams may be left behind

The main problem is that on this thread we are trying to fit a round peg into a square hole. Rugby union developed as distinct from rugby league. The difference - rugby league opted for guaranteed tackle ball and continuous phase play. Rugby union was based on a stop start game with stanzas of flowing exciting moves by smaller faster players bookended by forward tussles for possession between bigger players. The obsession with continuous play has brought the hybrid (long before the current use) into play. Backs started to look more like forwards because they were expected to compete at the tackle and breakdowns completely different from what the original game looked like. Now here’s the dilemma. Scrum lineout ruck and maul, tackling kicking handling the ball. The seven pillars of rugby union. We want to retain our “World in Union” essence with the strong forward influence on the game but now we expect 125kg props to scrum like tractors and run around like scrum halves. And that in a nutshell is the problem. While you expect huge scrums and ball in play time to be both yardsticks, you are going to have to have big benches. You simply can’t have it both ways. And BTW talking about player safety when I was 19 I was playing at Stellenbosch at a then respectable (for a fly half) 160lbs against guys ( especially in Koshuis rugby) who were 100 lbs heavier than me - and I played 80 minutes. You just learned to stay out of their way. In Today’s game there is no such thing and not defending your channel is a cardinal sin no matter how unequal the task. When we hybridised with union in semi guaranteed tackle ball the writing was on the wall.

190 Go to comments
Close
ADVERTISEMENT