Munster call in the cops to tackle offensive online harassment of their players
Munster Rugby have turned to police in Ireland to put an end to what they claim is the “offensive online harassment and abuse” of some of their players.
The club have claimed that social media accounts and offensive posts have been created in recent months “for the purpose of attacking and abusing players, while also falsely claiming to be Munster Rugby players online”.
The extraordinary story, published by the Limerick Leader newspaper, is completely against the grain for a club that so frequently praises the behaviour of its supporters who will travel in their thousands to next weekend’s Champions Cup quarter-final in Edinburgh.
A Munster spokesperson told the newspaper that the social media trolls are “actively looking to destroy reputations and falsely represent people” in their Twitter and Instagram posts.
“This is not rugby-related. This is targeted abuse and has moved beyond the players’ themselves. It has linked in to their family and friends. These people are actively looking to destroy reputations and falsely represent people.
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“With the online world you cannot control most of it. It’s other peoples’ accounts, other peoples’ posts. We cannot remove, we can’t delete them. Obviously we report them. We use the mechanisms that are available to us with regard to reporting on the social media platforms, but it is on-going, it is continuing to happen.
“It’s the level and the nature of the posts, the commentary and the accounts and what they are trying to get across. This harassment is of a nature that warrants Garda investigation and intervention. Our players are people. While the public see them as sportspeople, there are people number one in our line of work and rugby players number two.
“It’s the person, our people who are being attacked here. That is who we are trying to protect. As a group everyone is being attacked. What they are trying to do to them, there is a human side to it. The abuse effects so many people. You see young people in the papers every week, you are seeing the ramifications of the online world, cyber-bullying, online harassment.
Munster Rugby report 'offensive' on-line harassment of players to Gardai via @ckSportLeader #LLSport https://t.co/MHTYniuDGM
— Limerick Leader / Limerick Live (@Limerick_Leader) March 21, 2019
“We are all united on this, have been addressing the group and working with the players closely. Obviously, the Gardai would have been brought in, so we have had detectives explain the process of how that all works. We are checking in constantly with the players. Actually venting these things unifies you because it maybe is an attack on one player this week and another player next week. Some players may not be getting it, but as a group you stand together on it.
“It effects all of us, but we all work together to try and get through it. This abuse has been going on for months and we haven’t seen that [negative] effect on the pitch. We had won seven in a row up to losing our most recent game. This is going on in the background for months and it hasn’t impacted on performance. As a group everyone is very strong and united on it.
“From a player welfare point of view, it’s constant communication with players, it’s talking to the Gardai, it’s bringing in external services where possible. We’re speaking with a forensic scientist at the moment just to talk about online behaviours.
“It’s education and is about coping mechanisms. That is a big thing from our side. That links back to the sports side of things. When they are playing they get negative commentary and opinions which comes part and parcel of being a professional sportsperson.
“Our biggest objective is to make sure players can cope with that, so that now is moving into another level that we have never seen before. Now we are trying to address that and see how we work with our players on this and make sure everyone is coming through the right side of it.”
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
27 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments