Thursday 26 May 2011

Biased Or Not Too Biased

Stuart Barnes. What can I say about Mr Barnes that hasn't already been said by hundreds of rugby supporters, particularly those of us who support Leicester. Ours is the team he most loves to hate.

Lately his comments seem to seriously wind me up, so I have taken to turning down the sound on the television when matches are on Sky Sports. Instead I crank up the volume on Bleddyn Jones' radio commentary. Is Bleddyn biased towards Leicester? Of course he is! But he's not commenting on a national platform but on local radio.

I was glad I was actually at Leicester's semi final match against Northampton after hearing Barnes' reaction to the Ashton v Tuilagi fight. And it was a fight. Ashton took a pop at Manu in the back of the head with his knee and Manu came up swinging. Both were in the wrong, both accepted responsibility for their actions and both took their punishment (yellow card for Ashton, yellow card and five week ban for Manu).

To hear Barnes' views, Manu would appear just short of evil incarnate. His article on the Sky Sports website use the words "thuggishness", "assailant" and "battery", while he describes Ashton's knee to the head as "a gentle shove to the Samoan's neck". (http://www.skysports.com/opinion/story/0,25212,12062_6933401,00.html 15 May 2011)

I won't continue with Barnes' description of how Manu should not be allowed to represent England in the World Cup (although Dylan Hartley, a player I absolutely adore unless he's playing against Leicester once had a ban for eye gouging, a far more serious crime in the game of rugby and he represents England) or how Cockers behaved abominably at the same match towards the referee assessor (who did not seem to be aware he had been abused). You can read Barnes' own words via the link.

But the problem is Barnes' verbal diarrhoea was not contained to the events of 14 May. In today's Rugby Club on Sky Sports, he claimed that Cockers has turned against Players Player of the Year Thomas Waldrom following the Tank Engine declaring his availability for England selection, thanks to his dear Granny. This was widely reported in the media on 23 March 2011.

Since this announcement, Cockers has obviously shunned Waldrom:

Bath v Tigers - start
Quins v Tigers - replacement
Leinster v Tigers - replacement
Tigers v Gloucester - start
Falcons v Tigers - start
Tigers v London Irish - start
Tigers v Saints - replacement

If this is a sign of Cockers' displeasure, I would hate to see what he does to a player he likes!

It's a good thing the Premiership Final this Saturday is being broadcast on ESPN. Austin Healey might be a gobby git, but he's OUR gobby git!


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