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The decision by London Irish to keep Paddy Jackson in a leadership role for the new Gallagher Premiership season has generated a Twitter storm in his native Ireland ahead of Friday’s pre-season friendly versus Connacht in Galway. Having had his contract terminated by the IRFU in April 2018, Jackson has since re-established his rugby career, initially spending a year in France with Perpignan before switching to London Irish and becoming a vital part of their set-up under Declan Kidney.
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It was Kidney who gave Jackson his Ireland debut in 2013 and his soft spot for the now 29-year-old has resulted in the out-half getting chosen in the London Irish leadership group. It was last November when he was chosen in a four-strong leadership team for the 2020/21 season and with Blair Cowan having since left the club, Jackson has been chosen again along with Nick Phipps to support skipper Matt Rogerson in the season ahead.
Kidney explained: “We believe that in Matt, Nick and Paddy we have got a very strong and experienced leadership group for the upcoming season… each of the three players brings different strengths that will help us continue to progress over the course of the campaign.”
However, this decision to keep Jackson in the three-strong leadership group has ignited another divisive social media debate due to the Irishman’s involvement in a high-profile court case. Jackson, who became the established Ireland out-half back-up to Johnny Sexton during the Joe Schmidt era, was sacked by his IRFU employers three-and-a-half years ago despite being found not guilty of raping a young student at a house party in Belfast.
It’s a case that hasn’t been forgotten in Ireland judging by how #Ibelieveher and ‘Paddy Jackson’ have been trending on Twitter since the latest London Irish leadership group announcement was made, the original tweet by the club attracting multiple responses, and it has since been confirmed that Jackson will be the starting No10 for Friday’s game in Galway, his first time playing in Ireland since May 2017.
👨✈️ Matt Rogerson will captain London Irish in the upcoming 2021/22 season.@MattRogerson_8 will be supported in the role by @Fanga9 and Paddy Jackson, who complete the leadership group.
Read more 👉 https://t.co/jjvGnhPzvG pic.twitter.com/l2CErB0jY2
— London Irish (@londonirish) September 6, 2021
Jackson hasn’t played in Ireland since his departure from Ulster, missing out on trips to Connacht with Perpignan and to Munster with Irish, but his form in England hasn’t gone unnoticed. It was last March when Kidney spoke about Jackson’s on-pitch consistency at a time when his play at London Irish had resulted in some rugby pundits claiming he should be considered by Ireland again even though they hadn’t chosen an overseas-based player since Sexton was at Racing in France in 2015.
“Paddy is a very good rugby player. We knew that and we wanted to bring in an out-half with experience,” said Kidney six months ago. “Both myself and Les (Kiss, Jackson’s ex-Ulster boss and an ex-Ireland assistant) knew him and we asked him to join us. He has joined in and I suppose he is not doing anything we didn’t think he was well capable of.
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“It seems a very bland answer but you probably wouldn’t expect anything else from me on that particular topic. He is an international ten, he is an international quality ten. That is not in dispute. He is just in his prime and he is playing accordingly. He is a good player, yeah, but there is nothing he is doing that I didn’t think he was capable of doing.
“There were probably a couple of other areas he can add to his bow then too. His playing was truncated. He was at full-back a lot when he was at Perpignan and then when he was with us as well then too, we had Stephen Myler and we had a bit of 15/10 but there is a longer run there now at 10 and he is getting into the groove of that there more and more each game. I’m afraid that is as close to the beach that I will get to you.”
London Irish have named their squad for Munster and it doesn't feature Paddy Jacksonhttps://t.co/fa1O1kNIEc
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) September 10, 2019
Comments on RugbyPass
Beautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 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
4 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 Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 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!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 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.
30 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 comments