Originally Posted by Mike Teevee:
“No ban for 'gypsy boy' comment. I'm sure the Welsh fans will love that.”
“No ban for 'gypsy boy' comment. I'm sure the Welsh fans will love that.”
Breaking News:
Rugby player winds up opponent...!! Escapes ban...!! Shock-horror...!!
Jeezus, get a grip. I was called all sorts of things when I played rugby for my university women's team. If I went squinnying to the rugby authorities every time somebody called me a lesbian / lezza / dyke / rug muncher / queer or any of the hundred and one other things I was called (you wouldn't believe how inventive women can be) I would have spent all my life with a trail of salty tears trickling down my cheeks and grizzling through the night every time somebody didn't get a ban for it.
If the alleged Gypsy Boy can't handle it he should go and do something more commensurate with his sensitivities. Collect stamps or watch Disney movies or something.
Down here in Kernow, the biggest insult one of our players can throw at an opponent is to call him an Englishman. And believe me, they mean the word as a pejorative. I've yet to see anybody from the other (wrong) side of the Tamar making a big issue over it.
Yes, I know the rule is there to eradicate racist language in the sport and where genuinely malicious racist language occurs then fine..... hit the offender.
But honestly........ "Gypsy Boy"....? being used as a wind-up taunt at an opponent who goes out of his way to publicly big up his "heritage"...?
I used to have a rainbow flag sticker on my sport bag and sometimes that might be seen by opponents when we arrived at a ground for a match. That's probably why some opponents attempted to use homophobic baiting as a means of winding me up. It didn't work and I sure didn't run away to the changing rooms crying about it.
This was a frivolous complaint by the WRU and was, in my opinion, properly dismissed as such (but with much more diplomatic language than I would have used).
If English players complained every time a Welsh player called them "English Bastards", disciplinary committees would be sitting late into the night for weeks after every match.
Eddie Jones is not allowing this to be a distraction from England's preparation for the Grand Slam match on Saturday. He's an Australian and knows a thing or two about wind-ups..... and how to treat them with the big pinch of salt they deserve.




) Gatland and Lee had no problems with it after the game as far as I'm aware and I don't think I've seen any Welsh player or member of management calling for a ban or anything
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