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Lions pick Watson sweetly hits back at 'badmouthing' Stephen Jones

By Liam Heagney
(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Lions tour back-rower Hamish Watson has hit back at last April’s newspaper criticism by Sunday Times rugby correspondent Stephen Jones who claimed that the Six Nations player of the tournament was too small to play for Warren Gatland’s team. The soon-to-be 30-year-old flanker had blazed a championship trail with the much-improved Scotland, helping them to much-admired away wins versus England and France.

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Those performances generated a huge public momentum for Watson to get chosen to tour South Africa but one journalist attempted to shoot down the Scottish player’s credentials by claiming: “Lightweight Hamish Watson is no match for the Springboks. The Scotland flanker may be the best in the Six Nations but he shouldn’t be on the Lions tour.”

As it turned out, Watson was picked to tour by Gatland and he went on to feature in the first Test as a second-half replacement when the Lions defeated the Springboks in Cape Town. That selection was very much one in the eye of the critics who reckoned that the Scotland forward was too small for that type of an international stage.

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The thing is, though, Watson has now admitted he never knew who Jones was until the controversy erupted in the wake of last April’s “he’s too small to tour” article, quipping that he initially thought it was ex-Wales out-half Stephen Jones who had taken a pop at his size and not a seasoned journalist who has long been on the rugby media circuit.

Watson was appearing on the first episode of the new RugbyPass Offload season in the company of Ryan Wilson and Max Lahiff when the criticism from Jones was read out to him, prompting his amusing reaction about how he hadn’t a clue who the journalist in question was.

“When I saw a lot of stuff coming through on my social media I had no idea who Stephen Jones is,” said Watson on the show less than six weeks after the Lions tour ended in a 2-1 Test series defeat to the Springboks. “I thought it was the old Wales 10 badmouthing me and I thought that was just weird from another rugby player. I don’t really care about the opinion, to be honest. He has done his job because he is a journalist and it is what it is blown into.

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“Anyone who has played me on the field, without being an arse, anyone who knows me, sees the stuff in the gym and all that sort, people know it [the article] is a load of rubbish. It’s just funny how stuff like that has suddenly spiralled into stuff like this and people having debates on podcasts. That is him well played I guess but do I care about his opinion? Not really.”

Watson was similarly unruffled by the infamous post-first Test video rant by Rassie Erasmus, the South African director of rugby, who is now facing a World Rugby misconduct charge for his criticism of the match officials. “I didn’t actually watch it, I saw little snippets,” continued the Lions forward.

“I’m sure the coaching staff watched it. The reaction in camp was just to let him get on with his business, he is focusing on the wrong thing. For me personally, I found it quite funny all the stuff he was saying. The fact of the matter is anyone can do what he did and go through 80 minutes of rugby and pick out probably 100 penalties that didn’t get seen.

“Whether people like it or not, that is rugby. There are going to be so many little penalties, so many yellow cards, even red cards that people miss and that is the game. What he did I suppose any coach could do after a game and any coach could vent like that after a game. But I didn’t hold anything against him. I thought it was quite comical, to be honest.”

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Jon 5 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 8 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

32 Go to comments
A
Adrian 10 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

32 Go to comments
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