New - Warren Gatland of the week

[Kofi Annan]

Right , own up, no way is the rum and coke account real, no one is that out of touch with reality.

[BR]

Given the Branch says the issue is dead — who is dropping the info to the media and why ?

The obvious suspect would be the ref's secretary, but maybe that's a little too obvious.

[MightyRearranger]

Having lived in Coleraine for 7 years I would believe the referee could well have been subject to abuse .
At club level, abuse of referees is nothing new — ask any referee or player who has played at Donaghadee — usually sort of chants of rubbish etc at any decision given against the home team .

Any referee coming from L/Derry would get abuse at Coleraine regardless of sex there being little love lost between Coleraine and L’Derry .It goes back generations .

Given the Branch says the issue is dead — who is dropping the info to the media and why ?

As I said previously worse abuse has been heaped on women in a bar and it isn’t newsworthy

But — middle class rugby — target for the year — on social media and BBC

And you lot feed the trolls

So, in summary, it's ok for this sort of abuse to be hurled at a referee because they're from Derry?

In my view the sort of things that were said shouldn't be acceptable in any form of life, be it 'middle class rugby' or otherwise. There's an extent to which I understand why Coleraine have taken the stand they have, with respect to the potential financial impact of alienating their main sponsor and the like, but I personally find the way this has been handled by them fairly reprehensible.

While I can appreciate the likes of BR not wanting to cast stones without anything other than second hand information, based on what I've heard from people I'd trust I've no reason to doubt the accuracy of what's being reported in the BBC. Aside from that, while playing I've personally thought that Grainne was one of the better referee's I've had over the years, she doesn't strike me a shrinking violet who'd easily offend and I've heard nothing but positivity from those who know her better.

I have an immense amount of respect for anyone willing to voluntarily give up their Saturday's to enable people like me to play club rugby. While women are never going to be able to compete physically with men while in playing terms, there's no reason they can't be as good as referees and as far as I'm concerned the more of them that want to take it up the better. While most of us have no doubt criticized a referee from the sidelines on occasion after a beer or two, there's an absolute chasm between that and sexually degrading abuse. In my eyes, anyone that tries to argue that the two are in anyway equivalent is a bit of a .

[nonplussed]

Having lived in Coleraine for 7 years I would believe the referee could well have been subject to abuse .
At club level, abuse of referees is nothing new — ask any referee or player who has played at Donaghadee — usually sort of chants of rubbish etc at any decision given against the home team .

Any referee coming from L/Derry would get abuse at Coleraine regardless of sex there being little love lost between Coleraine and L’Derry .It goes back generations .

Given the Branch says the issue is dead — who is dropping the info to the media and why ?

As I said previously worse abuse has been heaped on women in a bar and it isn’t newsworthy

But — middle class rugby — target for the year — on social media and BBC

And you lot feed the trolls .



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Oh


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[BaggyTrousers]

Baggy, I'll try to answer your questions. Firstly I am not a member of CRFC, I have a relative who plays for them and most of this information has come from him. The players are as fed up with this as anyone. Secondly this is not meant as a defence of the club only to repeat the noises coming out of the club.

The four men are well know within the club. One has links to a sponsor, at what level I don't know. At least one is a former president. All deny making any sexist comments. Tellingly I've heard no-one deny abuse of ref.

I was told that the club weren't allowed to offer a defence at the branch hearing, therefore the club feel they have been badly treated by the branch.

The club take the view that there are discrepancies in the ref's version of events. She describes the crowd separating themselves from the 4, the club say the weather was so bad nearly everyone else went into the clubhouse. The club take exception to the alleged use of the word ho, this word isn't common parlance in Coleraine and they think it unlikely to be used. She described them as wearing blazers but all were in overcoats because of the bad weather.

The above is the clubs version, below is my opinion/supposition.

I've spent a little time in the company of one of the four. He can be very entertaining but with drink taken can be boorish. The branch tried to sweep it under the carpet and didn't investigate it properly. If the branch did properly investigate and resolve the inconsistencies the club may have taken action against the four, as it is they feel hard done to and are circling the wagons. I doubt the reported events are exactly what happened but think something inappropriate definately happened. The branch are getting away without their failings being reported.

Unfortunately every club has these boorish members and refs get abuse at most clubs and are fed up with it, this is the straw that broke the camels back.

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RN, the vile abuse hurled at you notwithstanding, I thank you for your explanation from a club and your own perspective.

Actually, after many things in recent seasons, including the two young gentlemen, I can easily accept a suggestion that the branch, in botching an attempt to sweep things under the carpet, have absolutely made matters worse for the club, a proper initial investigation and sanction and we probably would no longer be talking about it.

I’m neither convinced nor particularly bothered about the ho word, I don’t use it myself and accept it is not something that would automatically come from many, but really that is besides the point. Further, the fact that the crowd separated from the 4 seems genuine, you are only suggesting a different reason so no matter the reason, it appears what she said is accurate in that respect,

Finally, for I am unable to conclude anything other than the meat of her accusation seems more or less accurate, I have the opposite character flaw to the guy you describe, I am boorish when in the company of my keyboard but am a rather amiable fellow when drunk.... unless I start a fight I suppose.

Ok finally finally, I did once throw a tirade of sustained vile abuse at a vile ballix who charged through and sent drink flying around me and the charming wife of one of my mates. 20 minutes later he crept up behind me and sucker punched me to the back of the dead. He knocked me, ârse over breakfast and then ran off, now he may have been a cowardly sort of a fûckknuckle, but it taught me that firing a sustained foul mouthed volley of abuse at someone has consequences.

I look forward to lifting my fatwah on the entire borough of Coleraine, just as soon as some truth emerges. I sit with a Coleraine man at Ravenhill and he is a King amongst men, as decent and good a man as you will meet, I take no pleasure in my current stand off with the town and environs.

[BR]

Do we have any corroboration for Crabtree's statement. Was there anyone there other than the perpetrators? Did anyone else provide evidence to the Branch?
Does the Dromore TJ do the door at Ollie's?

[Bart S]

Do we have any corroboration for Crabtree's statement. Was there anyone there other than the perpetrators? Did anyone else provide evidence to the Branch?
Does the Dromore TJ do the door at Ollie's?

Speaking of doors, does anyone have a spare barn one for Rory Best to aim some rugby balls at?

[Cap'n Grumpy]

Aled Brew IIRC playing for Newport Dragons. Dodgy Dodgy kicker was the chant.

That is correct and when the tapes were played back again, you could see him react to that chant at exactly the right moment. UR reviewed all the recordings and could only find that one possible explanation. (Brew was down receiving attention in front of the terrace while play had moved on to the far side, and one of his teammates put in a poor kick, prompting the chant from the crowd.)

Colin Charvis also subsequently claimed to have been racially abused at that match, citing a place and time in the first half, only to have it pointed out to him that he was a second half substitute in that match and was nowhere near and could not have been near, where he said it had happened.

Pretty sure the Armitage Spide thing, ....

Sky sports footage was used at Matt's hearing and a microphone near the duggout clearly picked up Matt calling him a "F***ing Spide". Matt had already admitted to using foul language, but denied racist. As the charge was not connected with foul, but only racist language, it was dismissed.

The best bit was that the charge was only brought several days after the match when Armitage told his old man what he though Matt had called him. It was his da that said that's a racist term .... Armitage hadn't even known what it meant, so in no way had taken it as racist.

[Jetstream]

An international rugby match honouring one of Scotland’s greatest players has been criticised after it emerged that none of the money raised will go to his charity.

Scotland will travel to Cardiff a week today to play Wales for the Doddie Weir Cup, which has been donated by the Welsh Rugby Union, in front of a crowd of more than 74,000.

The fixture will salute Weir, 48, who has motor neurone disease (MND) and has raised more than £500,000.

The Scottish Rugby Union (SRU) is expected to receive more than £1 million in gate receipts from the match, but not a penny of it will go to the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation, which aims to find new treatments for MND.



What a miserable shower of tight-fisted barstewards.

[BR]

Aled Brew IIRC playing for Newport Dragons. Dodgy Dodgy kicker was the chant.

That is correct and when the tapes were played back again, you could see him react to that chant at exactly the right moment. UR reviewed all the recordings and could only find that one possible explanation. (Brew was down receiving attention in front of the terrace while play had moved on to the far side, and one of his teammates put in a poor kick, prompting the chant from the crowd.)

Colin Charvis also subsequently claimed to have been racially abused at that match, citing a place and time in the first half, only to have it pointed out to him that he was a second half substitute in that match and was nowhere near and could not have been near, where he said it had happened.

Pretty sure the Armitage Spide thing, ....

Sky sports footage was used at Matt's hearing and a microphone near the duggout clearly picked up Matt calling him a "F***ing Spide". Matt had already admitted to using foul language, but denied racist. As the charge was not connected with foul, but only racist language, it was dismissed.

The best bit was that the charge was only brought several days after the match when Armitage told his old man what he though Matt had called him. It was his da that said that's a racist term .... Armitage hadn't even known what it meant, so in no way had taken it as racist.

I remember it differently wrt the sanction.

Yes I believe it was his dad who mistranslated the insult.

"Dad, what's a spide?"
"Don't know son, why do you ask?"
"A bad boy called me it during the game "
"Spide? He's called you a spade, son. That's racist. You need to report him."
"OK, daddy. Are you sure I won't be just making a dîck of myself?"

I'd love to think someone was talented enough to make that shît up, but alas it is only fact.

[Rooster]

An international rugby match honouring one of Scotland’s greatest players has been criticised after it emerged that none of the money raised will go to his charity.

Scotland will travel to Cardiff a week today to play Wales for the Doddie Weir Cup, which has been donated by the Welsh Rugby Union, in front of a crowd of more than 74,000.

The fixture will salute Weir, 48, who has motor neurone disease (MND) and has raised more than £500,000.

The Scottish Rugby Union (SRU) is expected to receive more than £1 million in gate receipts from the match, but not a penny of it will go to the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation, which aims to find new treatments for MND.



What a miserable shower of tight-fisted barstewards.

That is now pushing the Coleraine 4 hard

[Cap'n Grumpy]

I remember it differently wrt the sanction.

I may of course be wrong wrt the sanction - one of us must be

At least we agree on the basics of the rest.

[damianmcr]

Is calling someone a spade racist? Must look on google.

I've never called anyone a spade before btw

So it's an oldie it seems.

[Cap'n Grumpy]

I remember it differently wrt the sanction.

I may of course be wrong wrt the sanction - one of us must be

At least we agree on the basics of the rest.

No mention of any ban for other offence in any of these contemporary reports. If there was, you'd think someone would have mentioned at least in passing, so I presume there was none.

https://www.newsletter.co.uk/sport/mccu ... -1-1842357

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/ ... -1.1298742

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/23066 ... arges.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_u ... 295837.stm

Is there a "smug" smilie anywhere?

[big mervyn]

Is calling someone a spade racist? Must look on google.

I've never called anyone a spade before btw

So it's an oldie it seems.

I believe it's more of a septic term. See Blazing Saddles. If you haven't seen it, DO see Blazing Saddles. Great movie.
Yer bona fide Norn Irn racist would be more likely to go straight to the N-word.