'If we don't stop the online idiocy, we're going to end up with broken players and a grossly diminished game'
As a callow player and a sensitive young man, Adam Hastings couldn’t help himself. After every game, he’d rush back to the changing rooms, fetch out his phone, plug his name into Twitter and scour social media for comments about his performance.
Usually, he’d search for “Hastings”. Often, he wouldn’t have to. Not when frothing ‘supporters’ and faceless malcontents were tagging him in spite, venom that laid waste to already frail confidence.
Hastings, mercifully, has grown out of that routine and blossomed into a Test-calibre fly-half, but he is far from alone. The temptation to peer into this virtual abyss can be overwhelming, intoxicating even. The thirst for acclaim and the innate need to slap down those who abuse gets the better of so many. Only dark things can come of it.
Stuart Hogg, the Scotland captain, was also a name-searcher once upon a time. In a BBC interview this week, he spoke of how a single negative comment amid 99 messages of praise would fester and gnaw at him above all the rest.
He even suggested players might grow so afraid of an online savaging that they would shy away from trying things and serving up the rugby that everybody wants to devour. That is a truly sobering thought. But it is easy to see why it might come to pass.
“I hope you die,” one individual tweeted Chris Ashton after the wing moved from Northampton Saints to Saracens in 2012. The hugely prolific England international became so sickened of Twitter and so upset by the barrage of abuse that he now compares his feelings about the platform to a phobia.
Alun Wyn Jones got slaughtered this month for refusing to pass off Joe Marler’s groin-grab as ‘banter’, as though the boorish toying of genitals to an audience of millions should be laughed about, even lionised, as part of rugby’s hilarious LAD culture.
George North, Jones’s Wales team-mate, has 40 tries in 95 Tests but deals with trolls on a “daily basis”. “You should never play for Wales again,” said one. “Here’s your P45, I’ll sort it out,” chimed another. Danny Cipriani, unfathomably, took a pasting for his beautiful tribute to ex-partner, Caroline Flack, in the wake of her desperate passing last month.
On the tamer end of the scale, if there is such a thing, a ‘fan’ wrote: “Pete Horne, you’re stealing a living” to the Scotland centre and PRO12 champion immediately before one of the national team’s finest performances in recent memory. Few in Scottish rugby work as hard or give as much to the cause as Horne. Few get pilloried as frequently.
“I wish you never wear the shirt again.” That was a message that greeted Gordon Reid, among the most thunderously likeable characters in the game, after another Scotland Test. Some of the squad received much more noxious stuff during the ill-fated World Cup.
“Why are we wasting money on someone old and past it?” read a Tweet from a Leicester Tigers supporter on the recent signing of Nemani Nadolo. Would the author of this post have repeated it aloud to the face of the 6ft 5in, 130kg Fijian? If he had, Nadolo would have laughed and turned the other cheek because that’s the kind of bloke he is.
Nadolo has been racially abused in the past, in person. Simon Zebo has had that kind bile hurled at him too, during a Champions Cup match at Ulster. As a young woman, Rhona Lloyd, the Scotland wing, got teased for being too muscular and developed such a complex over her body image that it drove her to skip weights sessions issued by the national selectors. Ugo Monye was bladed for his television punditry on the day his wife suffered a miscarriage.
This is sordid stuff, right? This isn’t the rugby many of us recognise or the community we cherish. But this smattering – and it is only a smattering – of poison is merely a drop in the cyber-ocean. There’s a whole lot more of it out there, stinking the place out.
Coming soon on @RugbyPass pic.twitter.com/dERpAwAUBi
— Jim Hamilton (Vice Captain) (@jimhamilton4) March 24, 2020
The vast majority of the public don’t have a clue what it is like to be a professional rugby player in 2020. They don’t see the eye-watering volume of fitness, drills, set-pieces, attacking moves, defensive shapes, weightlifting, dieting, analysing, prehabbing, rehabbing, planning, meetings and all the rest of it that goes into making a career of this glorious sport.
They don’t feel the relentlessness and the ferocity of the hits, car-crash collisions that seem to grow more vicious by the season. They don’t operate in front of thousands – sometimes millions – of people on a weekly basis. They don’t live their lives under anything like the same level of scrutiny.
Of course, rugby players are on the whole paid handsomely for their toil, but that doesn’t make them fair game. There’s a pretty obvious line between performance critique and outright malevolence. A player knows when they have not played well – they don’t need 52-year-old Dave from High Wycombe issuing a bombastic reminder of how crap they were so they, their family and friends can read it.
Some can shed that nonsense as easily as taking off their coats, but on a certain level, it still stings. Others take it much, much harder. How often must it be said? Being a hulking athlete with a 180kg bench press and the body-fat percentage of Mr Olympia does not render one emotionally bulletproof.
THE @johnbarc86 COLUMN
'…many players will have played their last games for their clubs, or even of their careers, without knowing it.'https://t.co/OBx3TT4ZPq
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) March 21, 2020
Physically, the game has never been tougher, but mentally too, the toll is immense. Seasons nowadays stretch on longer than Saving Private Ryan and are almost as brutal. The irony is that it has taken the heinousness and tragedy of a global pandemic to give some players’ bodies a proper rest.
After Flack’s death, social media was awash with pledges to ‘be kind’. So soon afterwards, the filth has seeped in again, if indeed it ever left. People, frequently, are not kind, particularly when it comes to sport. Players have insecurities and vulnerabilities and demons like the rest of us.
Players succumb to addiction and poor mental health. Hundreds of them have spoken about it, among them some of the finest minds and toughest figures in the game – Jonny Wilkinson, Graham Henry, Eddie Jones. Many more are suffering still.
Rugby likes to trumpet its values long and loud. There’s a superiority complex here, an unedifying sneering at ‘lesser’ sports like football. “Ah, but you’d never see a referee being abused in rugby.” Except that you would.
Refereeing a different type of scrum https://t.co/e7VhWoOpNe
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) March 21, 2020
Ask Nigel Owens about homophobic slurs, or Bryce Lawrence about being threatened with violence. In fact, you even saw Jones, the most famous coach in the world, effectively calling an official a cheat after a recent match and shamefully escaping any serious comeuppance. This moral high ground is being eroded.
Hogg, Ashton, North and others have described the relief of withdrawing from social media. The Scotland full-back has handed over access to his accounts to his agency and feels a good deal happier and healthier for doing so.
Twitter and Instagram give us such wonderful platforms to do good, to interact with players, foster closer bonds between fans and their heroes, but if we want to keep it that way, we can’t go on like this. We have to do better. If we don’t stop the idiocy, we are going to end up with broken players, a toxic online habitat and a grossly diminished game.
WATCH: Ben Foden chats to Jim Hamilton in the latest episode of The Lockdown, the new RugbyPass series
Comments on RugbyPass
South Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
1 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
1 Go to commentsSad that this was not confirmed. When administrators talk about expanding the game they evidently don’t include pathways to the top tier of rugby for teams outside of the old boys club. Rugby deserves better, and certainly Georgia does.
1 Go to commentsLions might take him on if they move on Van Rooyen but I doubt he will want to go back, might consider it a step backwards for himself. Sharks would take him on but if Plumtree goes on to win the challenge cup they will keep him on. Also sharks showing some promising signs recently. Stormers and Bulls are stable and Springboks are already filled up. Quality coach though, interesting to see where he ends up
1 Go to commentsAnd the person responsible for creating a culture of accountability is?
2 Go to commentsMore useless words from Ben Smith -Please get another team to write about. SA really dont need your input, it suck anyway.
264 Go to commentsThis disgraceful episode must result in management and coach team sackings. A new manager with worse results than previous and the coaching staff need to coached. Awful massacre led by donkeys.
1 Go to commentsInteresting article with one glaring mistake. This sentence: “And between the top four nations right now, Ireland, France, South Africa, and New Zealand…” should read: And between the top four nations right now, South Africa, Ireland, New Zealand and France…”. Get it right wistful thinkers, its not that hard.
23 Go to commentsHow did Penny get the gig anyway?
2 Go to commentsNice write up Nick and I would have agreed a week ago. However as you would know Cale & co got absolutely monstered by the Blues back row of Sotutu, Ioane and Papaliti and not all of these 3 are guaranteed a start in the Black jumper. He may need to put some kgs before stepping up, Spring tour? After the week end Joe will be a bit more restless. Will need to pick a mobile tough pack for Wales and hope England does the right thing and bashes the ABs. I like your last paragraph but I would bring Swinton, Hannigan into the 6 role and Bobby V to 8
21 Go to commentsThe Crusaders can still get in to the Play Off’s. The imminent return of outstanding captain Scott Barrett and his All Black team mate Codie Taylor will be a big boost.There are others like Tamaiti Williams too. Two home games coming up. Fellow Crusader fans get there and support these guys. I will be.
1 Go to commentsCant get more Wellington than Proctor.
2 Go to commentsWhy not let the media decide. Like how they choose the head coach. Like most of us we entrust the rugby system to choose. A rugby team includes the coaches. It's collective.
13 Go to commentsHi NIck, I have been very impressed with him and he seems a smart player who can see opportunities which Bobby V _(who must be an international 6_) doesn’t see or have the speed to take advantage of. If he continues to improve and puts on 5kgs then he could be a great 8. He is a bit taller than Keiran Reid at 1.93m and 111 kgs, so his skill set fits his body size and who knows where it will lead. I hope the spate of Achilles tendon issues have been dealt with by the S&C people. It’s been a very long time since Mark Loane and Kefu stood out at 8. The question is will we be able to hold onto him, if he does make it he will be pretty hot property. I disagree with the idea of letting them go to the Northern Hemisphere and then bring them back.
21 Go to commentsBilly Fulton 🤣🤣🤣🤣 garrrmon not even close
13 Go to commentsDoes the AI take into account refs? hahaha Seriously why not have two on field refs to avoid bias?
23 Go to commentsVern challenging this Blues side might be the edge they need to fulfill their potential. Convincing results from strong D and strong carries are hard to argue against.
1 Go to commentsLove seems to add a strong back field defense with speed to close the gap and tackle to his ability to attack, kick and pass (an accurate long pass). This sets him an edge over some of the other names - JRK in particular. Has to be said that Jordan and Stevenson have also been exposed defensively while Love has yet to face test match intensity. Spoilt for choice.
1 Go to commentsHe’s strung together a few strong seasons, I’d like to see him in the ABs and build some depth along with Reiko and ALB. Levi Aumua hasn’t taken the step we hoped to see but time yet.
2 Go to comments