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The brutal online comment that most affected Jacob Umaga this year
Wasps have broadcast a nine-and-a-half-minute video in which new England rugby cap Jacob Umaga calls on social media companies to make people accountable for abusive posts they publish. Social media abuse of sportspeople has again become a hot topic in the wake of last weekend’s Euro 2020 final loss by the England footballers, Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka all getting racially abused after they missed penalties in the shootout that was won by Italy at Wembley.
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Seven days earlier, Umaga was making his Test rugby debut for England versus the USA just months after he suffered badly from some brutal online criticism which coincided with him losing his place in the Wasps starting line-up for a number of games in the recently finished 2020/21 Gallagher Premiership season.
Fresh from celebrating his 23rd birthday last week, Umaga has now tellingly said his piece about social media abuse and the damage it can do to people, especially young players making their way in professional sport. “A lot of people say it and never say it to your face but it needs to be a platform where if someone does say it, they need to be held accountable for what they are saying.
“Whether it is social abuse about a rugby player, if it is racism, if it is homophobia, anything – these people need to be held accountable for it because it is such a broad platform that anyone can see it. We don’t want that young generation feeding into that toxic behaviour,” said Umaga, who went on to describe how he himself was affected by negative social media comments and how one particular terrible message played on his mind for two months earlier this year.
“I remember there was one comment online, ‘Jacob Umaga doesn’t deserve to play for Wasps at all’. I can’t remember who we lost to, but that one stuck with me quite a lot. I actually love this club. I’m from Kenilworth down the road, I know the area really well, I love everyone at the club, I put a lot of hard work into the games and to say I don’t deserve to play – for that person it might be a loose comment, it might be nothing but to me it means a lot.
"He had a poor game against Harlequins and he will tell you that himself"
– Wasps rallying around their young out-half following a difficult few weeks #GallagherPremhttps://t.co/d1xD4drcxR
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) February 9, 2021
“Someone questioning how much I want to play for this club or how hard I am going to work for this club, that stuck with me for a few games and I was trying to prove probably to that person that I deserved to be there when in actual fact I know myself, my support group knows, I worked hard enough to get here and I absolutely love this club but I was seeking someone’s approval who I don’t care about.
“You try and get away from it but you can’t. As much as you don’t want to, you are scrolling on your phone. I’ll just have a look at the 30, 40 comments that are there and you end up in a spiral of reading something you shouldn’t read or stalking a guy that doesn’t have a username properly and is just abusing you for no reason,” continued Umaga, who stepped off the England bench on July 4 to replace Max Malins who was injured early in the match.
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“If I miss a tackle, throw a bad pass, I know that in the back of my head I’m thinking, ‘I’m getting comments for that, I am getting a bad rating or something like that’. Then it is just playing on my mind for the rest of the game. As much as it’s easy to say, ‘Just shake it off’, for some people you just can’t shake it off – and there was a point earlier in the year where I just couldn’t shake anything off. I threw a bad pass into touch and I just knew I am going to get so much backlash for that. It’s not where a young player wants to be at all.
“It probably took about two months (to get over it). A lot of that was in the last lockdown where I was stuck indoors, going from training to home, training to home. A lot of people think, ‘Cool, you’re going into training’. But if you can’t escape training when you go home you are just stuck in rugby mode constantly. It took two months to get it off my head.”
? “Social media abuse, homophobia, racism… People need to be held accountable” – Jacob Umaga discusses the pressure of the spotlight and how he’s overcome the social media trolls… pic.twitter.com/yksAbK1yeL
— Wasps Rugby (@WaspsRugby) July 14, 2021
Comments on RugbyPass
Je 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!😭😭😭 !!!
25 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
25 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.
25 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.
25 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 commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
11 Go to comments