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'Utter embarrassment': Stephen Jones panned over 'pretty low' joke

New Zealand's wing Caleb Clarke scores wearing an armband in honour of the late king (Photo by PHILL MAGAKOE / AFP) (Photo by PHILL MAGAKOE/AFP via Getty Images)

Outspoken Sunday Times columnist Stephen Jones has been panned for a joke he made about the name of a recently deceased Maori King.

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Kiingi Tuheitia Potatau Te Wherowhero the Seventh died three days ago at age of 69, surrounded by his wife and three children. The king had been recovering in hospital from heart surgery shortly after celebrating the 18th anniversary of his coronation.

New Zealand wore black armbands in honour of his passing at Ellis Park in their 31-27 defeat to South Africa in Ellis Park on Saturday.

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    Jones suggested the length of the late king’s name would have been too long to fit on the All Blacks jersey, had he ever represented New Zealand.

    Writing in the newspaper the Welsh rugby pundit wrote: “The All Blacks took the field wearing black armbands in honour of Tuheitia Potatau Te Wherowhero the Seventh, the Maori king who passed away last week. No doubt very sad, although thank God he never made the All Blacks because they would never have space to put his name on a jersey.”

    The line hasn’t played well on X, where he has been criticised for his, insensitivity, the fact that he appeared to be making fun of the length of his name and the fact that the joke doesn’t even make sense.

    Edward Jenkins posted: ‘Stephen Jones being an utter embarrassment’ alongside a screenshot of the sentence.

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    “Jaysus… That’s pretty low,” wrote one rugby fan, while another posted: “What a dreadful take and an embarrassment to the sport he is. Would he dare write the same about Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Mountbatten-Windsor II?”

    Squidge Rugby pointed out: “I mean besides everything else the All Blacks jerseys don’t have names on the back and never have.”

    One French user wrote: ‘Je vois que Stephen Jones est toujours aussi con’ which translates to ‘I see Stephen Jones is still as stupid as ever’.

    A minority came to Jones’ defence, one writing: “Sounds like a harmless joke about him having a long name – maybe could have worded it better but there’s no malice there at all. Certainly not racist.”

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    Comments

    10 Comments
    S
    SteveD 213 days ago

    Oh really. Typical fake anger from the kiwis. Grow up and stop trying to make anything anti-NZ into a major incident. Anyway, at least the delay let the crowd enjoy the flypast instead of the haka.

    D
    DS 213 days ago

    Really. Jones has made a career out of abusing / demeaning the ABs and NZ in general. People like you enjoy reading his put downs but are super sensitive if it affects your team or country. Jones is a massive hypocrite who would go apoplectic if Wales was ever criticised.

    B
    BH 214 days ago

    No surprises given that he is a disgraceful journalist anyway. Making a bad joke about a dead person is low even for SJ.

    T
    Terry24 214 days ago

    Making bad jokes about certain dead people is ok in his eyes showing how low he really is.

    G
    GL 214 days ago

    Check on the Welsh team Jones and assess any progress in XXI

    B
    Bruiser 214 days ago

    Hes probably still chuckling to himself. He calls it irony

    P
    Poorfour 214 days ago

    It is baffling that he is still employed. The quality of his journalism and analysis has long since reached the point where I simply assume that any opinion he offers is the opposite of what I should believe.

    F
    Forward pass 212 days ago

    You only have to look at sites like this one and like "The ROAR" to know that the worse the journalism the more clicks it gets. Clicks is what life has become all about. Angry clicks are better than happy clicks.

    d
    dk 214 days ago

    I couldn't agree more. If I was as poor at my job as he is at his, I would have been fired years ago.

    T
    Terry24 214 days ago

    Jones is a known xenophobe. He hides it in jokes and disproportionately targets particular groups for criticism. Hes being doing it about Irish/rugby too. Zero surprise to see him mask this racist comment as a 'joke'.

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    f
    fl 17 minutes ago
    Why Les Kiss and Stuart Lancaster can lead Australia to glory

    “He won a ECL and a domestic treble at the beginning of his career.”

    He won 2 ECLs at the beginning of his career (2009, 2011). Since then he’s won 1 in 15 years.


    “He then won 3 leagues on the bounce later in his career”

    He won 3 leagues on the bounce at the start of his career too - (2009, 2010, 2011).


    If we’re judging him by champions league wins, he peaked in his late 30s, early 40s. If we’re judging him by domestic titles he’s stayed pretty consistent over his career. If we’re judging him by overall win rate he peaked at Bayern, and was better at Barcelona than at City. So no, he hasn’t gotten better by every measure.


    “You mentioned coaches were older around the mid-2010’s compared to the mid-2000’s. Robson was well above the average age you’ve given for those periods even in the 90’s when in his pomp.”

    Robson was 63-64 when he was at Barcelona, so he wasn’t very old. But yeah, he was slightly above the average age of 60 I gave for the top 4 premier league coaches in 2015, and quite a bit above the averages for 2005 and 2025.


    “Also, comparing coaches - and their experiences, achievements - at different ages is unstable. It’s not a valid way to compare and tends to torpedo your own logic when you do compare them on equal terms. I can see why you don’t like doing it.”

    Well my logic certainly hasn’t been torpedoed. Currently the most successful premier league coaches right now are younger than they were ten years ago. You can throw all the nuance at it that you want, but that fact won’t change. It’s not even clear what comparing managers “on equal terms” would even mean, or why it would be relevant to anything I’ve said.


    “You still haven’t answered why Kiss could be a risker appointment?”

    Because I’ve been talking to you about football managers. If you want to change the subject then great - I care a lot more about rugby than I do football.

    But wrt Kiss, I don’t agree that 25 years experience is actually that useful, given what a different sport rugby was 25 years ago. Obviously in theory more experience can never be a bad thing, but I think 10 years of coaching experience is actually more than enough these days. Erasmus had been a coach for 13 years when he got the SA top job. Andy Farrell had been a coach for 9 when he got the Ireland job. I don’t think anyone would say that either of them were lacking in experience.


    Now - what about coaches who do have 25+ years experience? The clearest example of that would be Eddie Jones, who started coaching 31 years ago. He did pretty well everywhere he worked until around 2021 (when he was 61), when results with England hit a sharp decline. He similarly oversaw a terrible run with Australia, and currently isn’t doing a great job with Japan.

    Another example is Warren Gatland, who also started coaching full-time 31 years ago, after 5 years as a player-coach. Gatland did pretty well everywhere he went until 2020 (when he was 56), when he did a relatively poor job with the Chiefs, before doing a pretty poor job with the Lions, and then overseeing a genuine disaster with Wales. There are very few other examples, as most coaches retire or step back into lesser roles when they enter their 60s. Mick Byrne actually has 34 years experience in coaching (but only 23 years coaching in rugby) and at 66 he’s the oldest coach of a top 10 side, and he’s actually doing really well. He goes to show that you can continue to be a good coach well into your 60s, but he seems like an outlier.


    So the point is - right now, Les Kiss looks like a pretty reliable option, but 5 years ago so did Eddie Jones and Warren Gatland before they went on to prove that coaches often decline as they get older. If Australia want Kiss as a short term appointment to take over after Schmidt leaves in the summer, I don’t think that would be a terrible idea - but NB wanted Kiss as a long term appointment starting in 2027! That’s a massive risk, given the chance that his aptitude will begin to decline.


    Its kind of analagous to how players decline. We know (for example) that a fly-half can still be world class at 38, but we also know that most fly-halves peak in their mid-to-late 20s, so it is generally considered a risk to build your game plan around someone much older than that.

    168 Go to comments
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    AlanCriner 46 minutes ago
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    My name is Alan Criner, and I'm a resident of Toronto, CA. I'm a 45-year-old financial analyst who has always been cautious with my investments. However, in my quest to diversify my portfolio, I fell prey to a devastating fake crypto investment scam, losing 125,000 Canadian dollars' worth of Bitcoin. This traumatic experience sent my life into a downward spiral, leaving me depressed and feeling hopeless.

    Despite my repeated attempts to contact the account manager who initially approached me on Telegram, I was met with silence. They refused to provide any explanation or information, and I was locked out of my account on their website. The authorities were unable to assist me, as the scammers were untraceable.

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    NB 2 hours ago
    Why Les Kiss and Stuart Lancaster can lead Australia to glory

    https://www.london.edu/think/how-claudio-ranieri-transformed-leicester-city


    He jts knew how to use that deep well of knowledge accumulate over many years of management. A true Moneyball story!

    168 Go to comments
    f
    fl 2 hours ago
    Why Les Kiss and Stuart Lancaster can lead Australia to glory

    “Two comparable achievements 15 years apart (at different clubs in different leagues) represent failure and not continued success for an elite level coach/manager? Not even a hint of consistency? Just gradual, inevitable decline? And all because he is in his sixth decade?”

    Why don’t you try reading what I wrote before you start inventing a load of other random things that I didn’t say. I said “Pep hasn’t gotten better with age”. He hasn’t. I don’t think he’s got much worse, and yeah, he’s been fairly consistent over his career and has had more success than almost any other coach. But he hasn’t gotten better.


    “You’ve missed that Mourinho’s early start in football was as a translator for Bobby Robson (ironically a much older manager at the time!).”

    I was actually aware of that. I didn’t mention it because it wasn’t relevant to the fact that Mourinho - aged 52 - had more experience than Arteta does at 43. It also isn’t ironic that Bobby Robson was a much older manager at the time - it actually confirms by point that a lot of the top football managers used to be older than they are today.


    “You suggested that Les Kiss would not be suited to an international coaching role because of his age profile…that seemed to relate to rugby”

    That did relate to rugby. Let me walk you through the thread…


    NB suggested that Les Kiss should become Australia head coach in 2027.

    I said: “Given the drop off so many top coaches seem to experience as they get older (e.g. Jones, Gatland) Kiss could be a riskier appointment than you’d think!”

    NB said: “Drawing a parallel with the NFL and NBA, plenty of coaches stay well into their 70’s”

    I said: “Not all sports are going the same way though” then gave the example of football.


    The example of football was introduced in order to make the point that the age profile of managers is not the same in every sport. If you had read the thread you were replying to you would know this!

    168 Go to comments
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