Delon Armitage - hero or villain?

In my view, Armitage's try "celebration" single handedly turned a team that no one really likes that much anyway - into the probably the most unpopular winners of a major rugby tournament of all time. Interested to know if you guys and girls found it as offensive and obnoxious as I did!

Don't think he is the biggest douche, but that finger wagging on his way to score was a bit obnoxious. To me he appears to be a little immature.

MarcusHalberstram wrote:In my view, Armitage's try "celebration" single handedly turned a team that no one really likes that much anyway - into the probably the most unpopular winners of a major rugby tournament of all time. Interested to know if you guys and girls found it as offensive and obnoxious as I did!

Everyone around me at the match was of the same opinion. Far worse than the Ash Splash which I don't have issue with.

Here's a question what would reaction be if Alain Rolland blew the whistle, no try, penalty for unsportsmanlike behavior.

I think that would have been equally as unpopular with fans.

With regards to Delon if rugby players are real men then he is sub human.

He is something that rhymes with Frank stain.

He also tweeted to Brian Moore saying 'any time you fat pr***! Go and write another s*** book'

Great role model for the kids he is.

I have no issue with Toulon and have never bought into the idea of disliking a side because they've splashed the cash, changing the hierarchy of teams is a good thing. Yesterday saw stereotypical performances by 2 Englishmen; Wilkinson a metronomic professional; Armitage a graceless ar5e. I don't dislike Toulon because of Armitage, they deserve their win, but Armitage has sealed his fate to be remembered as a thug and a thoroughly dislikeable person.

Armitage has his haters and as an Irish fan I am probably a little bit biased...however, what I would like to say is that I have seen that celebration probably at least a dozen times before yesterday and nobody has ever picked up on it. It was only noticed because it was Armitage and has only provoked such an outrage because it was him.

SirBurger wrote:Armitage has his haters and as an Irish fan I am probably a little bit biased...however, what I would like to say is that I have seen that celebration probably at least a dozen times before yesterday and nobody has ever picked up on it. It was only noticed because it was Armitage and has only provoked such an outrage because it was him.

I am not a Delon fan, but I do agree. So many players do silly celebrations, and I have seen finger wagging by a lot of players this season. Haters like to hate I reckon.

He was sledging Para at the same time.

ENGLAND needs more players like Delon.

Then maybe someone would have actually tackled Cuthbert LOL.

It's not tbe finger thing. It's just the classless way he does it and most otber things he does as well. Moore is a bit of a mouth. But to tweet back the shyte above just re enforces his classlessness. Most (even fractionally) bigger men would have just left it.

I remember him in a pre season friendly in Donnybrook a few seasons ago when he was still with LI.

He was at all that and the cheap shots in defence. IN A FOCKING FRIENDLY.

He is below the level of a snake's ballbag.

I actually quite like him as a player, and was calling for him as a true lions tourist option, but for all his stupidity generally the wave to Brock James just made him look like a dick!

I like the way he tried to cover his back when interviewd too, 'ye I thought about going under the posts but then realised we got Jonny and he never misses' or you were too busy show boating to do your job properly you plonker!!!

thebluesmancometh wrote: I actually quite like him as a player, and was calling for him as a true lions tourist option, but for all his stupidity generally the wave to Brock James just made him look like a dick!

I like the way he tried to cover his back when interviewd too, 'ye I thought about going under the posts but then realised we got Jonny and he never misses' or you were too busy show boating to do your job properly you plonker!!!

Based on what? Surely you don't think he is in the running as a fullback? He has done very little to impress me when compared with Hogg, Halfpenny, Kearney, Byrne, Foden and a number of others.

maestegmafia wrote:

thebluesmancometh wrote: I actually quite like him as a player, and was calling for him as a true lions tourist option, but for all his stupidity generally the wave to Brock James just made him look like a dick!

I like the way he tried to cover his back when interviewd too, 'ye I thought about going under the posts but then realised we got Jonny and he never misses' or you were too busy show boating to do your job properly you plonker!!!

Based on what? Surely you don't think he is in the running as a fullback? He has done very little to impress me when compared with Hogg, Halfpenny, Kearney, Byrne, Foden and a number of others.

Are you kiding, have you watched any T14 games he's been very good, and is the best English FB option right now! Hogg is a great broken runner, but has flaws, and 1/2p isn't the greatest attacking threat, Armitage does both to a similar standard and gets results, KEarney is the only player with the rounded game better than his in the Brit isles right now IMHO

Hero or villain? Neither - just a bit of a tw&t.

thebluesmancometh wrote:

maestegmafia wrote:

thebluesmancometh wrote: I actually quite like him as a player, and was calling for him as a true lions tourist option, but for all his stupidity generally the wave to Brock James just made him look like a dick!

I like the way he tried to cover his back when interviewd too, 'ye I thought about going under the posts but then realised we got Jonny and he never misses' or you were too busy show boating to do your job properly you plonker!!!

Based on what? Surely you don't think he is in the running as a fullback? He has done very little to impress me when compared with Hogg, Halfpenny, Kearney, Byrne, Foden and a number of others.

Are you kiding, have you watched any T14 games he's been very good, and is the best English FB option right now! Hogg is a great broken runner, but has flaws, and 1/2p isn't the greatest attacking threat, Armitage does both to a similar standard and gets results, KEarney is the only player with the rounded game better than his in the Brit isles right now IMHO

Not kidding at all I completely disagree with you.

Apart from a few run ins he has looked pretty average in both top 14 and HEC. Mind you bar Giteau it is not to hard to look like a fancy player in that Toulon team.

I would also say that Kearney is behind Halfpenny and Hogg in all aspects, Byrne has had a great season despite a non eventful day yesterday. Armitage doesn't come close.

offload wrote:Hero or villain? Neither - just a bit of a tw&t.

I was going to say something similar. He'll look back on it and he'll realise he spoiled the chance of looking really cool whilst doing the business of scoring a HC final try.

Instead, he just looked like one of those young idiots in their dressed up motors, sitting low in their bucket seats, wearing their straight-off-the-shelf new-look baseball 'rapper-ain't-I' caps...doing some larging-it hand jestures. And as they pass by with their subwoofers on max, every soul they pass thinks "A1 Ass-hole"

That and the cheap shoulde charge off the ball - classy player...not

Some people are just jerks.

Always disliked him after a certain incident at Ravenhill when he was playing for London Irish. Nasty piece of work throughout most of his career.

Just watching the replay of the game, just showed his try.

U can see the funny side, but also the unprofessional side.

To me there wasn't any need and would have been so funny if he had dropped the ball.

Feckless Rogue wrote:Some people are just jerks.

"Mr Armitage, please stop that."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmvtnnX4dt4

I've had the guy down as a jerk ever since "Spide-gate" when he was at London Irish. Ended up getting London Irish to lodge a complaint of racial abuse after he got called a spide by one of the Ulster players which is our word for 'chav'. The reason this fitting epithet was applied to him was the enthusiasm he showed to get into handbags after the game... but hate that, you lose and get sent off so you allege racial abuse. Its pretty low.

The guy obviously still hasn't grown up.

From Twitter:

Brian Moore:
"if a player did to me what Armitage has just done I'd have to chin him after the touchdown."

Armitage:
"anytime you fat Tinkywinky! Go write another Poopie book.."

Moore:
"Delon, at least I can write"

Moore:
"As @delonarmitage mentioned my Poopie double award-winning book - buy it here for the over-inflated price of £0.01"

Argh damn swear filter....

Kind of appropriate though as Brian Moore is like a sweary, grizzled twiny-winky.

Artful_Dodger wrote:From Twitter:

Brian Moore:
"if a player did to me what Armitage has just done I'd have to chin him after the touchdown."

Armitage:
"anytime you fat Tinkywinky! Go write another Poopie book.."

Moore:
"Delon, at least I can write"

Moore:
"As @delonarmitage mentioned my Poopie double award-winning book - buy it here for the over-inflated price of £0.01"

Very amusing...!

Artful_Dodger wrote:From Twitter:

Brian Moore:
"if a player did to me what Armitage has just done I'd have to chin him after the touchdown."

Armitage:
"anytime you fat Ba$tard! Go write another sh1t book.."

Moore:
"Delon, at least I can write"

Moore:
"As @delonarmitage mentioned my sh1t double award-winning book - buy it here for the over-inflated price of £0.01"

Swearing filters were made to be got around

RDW_Scotland wrote:He also tweeted to Brian Moore saying 'any time you fat pr***! Go and write another s*** book'

Great role model for the kids he is.

Did he really say that? In that case, I'm afraid that he really is a white crotch stain on the trousers of humanity.

So when rokocoko did it for 10 years straight it was just dominance but when Armitage does it once its arrogance because he happens to be english... Even though he spent very few years in England... Growing up mainly in the Caribbean and France.

I once played a British army 7s team a few years back.... Most were Fijians. They were awesome, blew my good side out the water.
I remember chasing down their winger and he would purposely slow down to let me catch up and then accelerate away with a fat grin on his face... Did it twice before I gave up. It was cheeky sure, but its part of the game. It's the same thing.

Whenever I smashed especially opposite numbers in the tackle I made sure they knew about it afterwards.. Was it arrogant, a little sure but it was part of the package to get them thinking twice about coming down your channel again.

Going back to Armitage, In the end it was a cup final and emotions were high. People should get off their high horse. Does he do it often, not that I can remember so give him a break.

It's an interesting point that I'm not sure I necessarily agree with, but it's certainly true that people do seem to have a dual opinion on similar sentiments.

People don't think twice about players who give an opponent an extra nudge into the ground when getting up from smashing them in the tackle to reinforce what just happened, or front rows who give their dominated opponent some quite physical shoves and grappling after they come up from winning a penalty at scrum time.

All different forms of the same teasing and display of oneupmanship ... 'we bested you, deal with it, but don't forget it'

Armitage is still a c0ck in my book though.

fa0019 wrote:

Going back to Armitage, In the end it was a cup final and emotions were high. People should get off their high horse. Does he do it often, not that I can remember so give him a break.

High horse as in high moral tone? I'd repeat what I thought about it. Not a wonderful display of HC emotion...not an evil act of unforgiveable depravity either, but a pretty bullshitty, leering, juvenile attitude all the same from a 29 year old man.

That's my particular high horse and I wouldn't be argued off it by appeals to give the guy a break. I realise though that more and more rugby followers feel the peacock displays are just 'character' coming out. Maybe rugby is moving on and with a new generation. I'm old fashioned and find the football displays queasy.

Rokocoko did it every time he scored.... Every time. Strange no one brought up the scandal then???

Was it a little crass, perhaps but given he has little form for this sort of stuff and given the moment I think people should relax just a little. If he wasn't english people I bet people wouldn't have even mentioned it.

Pacific Islanders are famed for it.

Agree with SecretFly. Rugby has always had values. Respect the opposition, respect the referee, smash your opposite number on the field and buy him a beer off the park. Be happy with your score and worry about the next one - no showboating.

At kids level his coach would have read him the riot act. At amatuer adult level he would have faced censure at the end of season kangaroo players court.

I do not want professional rugby to lose any of its amatuer values.

fa0019 wrote:Rokocoko did it every time he scored.... Every time. Strange no one brought up the scandal then???

Was it a little crass, perhaps but given he has little form for this sort of stuff and given the moment I think people should relax just a little. If he wasn't english people I bet people wouldn't have even mentioned it.

Pacific Islanders are famed for it.

I don't like it anytime, fa0019...tongues out and all that. I admit it happens and I'm not going to be having any public campaigns to stop it. But I don't like it wherever I see it. Even this weekend I was shouting a Rob Kearney for doing a little dive for his try against Stade. It's personal preferences I guess.

Brian Mooore couldnt even hit his own chin.

SecretFly wrote:

fa0019 wrote:Rokocoko did it every time he scored.... Every time. Strange no one brought up the scandal then???

Was it a little crass, perhaps but given he has little form for this sort of stuff and given the moment I think people should relax just a little. If he wasn't english people I bet people wouldn't have even mentioned it.

Pacific Islanders are famed for it.

I don't like it anytime, fa0019...tongues out and all that. I admit it happens and I'm not going to be having any public campaigns to stop it. But I don't like it wherever I see it. Even this weekend I was shouting a Rob Kearney for doing a little dive for his try against Stade. It's personal preferences I guess.

I understand fly.... The good thing about rugby though is that things like that do have a tendency to bite you back. They may play in the top14 final in 2 weeks time. Do you think James nor the rest of Claremont will forget his wave? I hope he can stay out of the way of Jamie cudmore... I wonder if James will be sending up a number of bombs his way come the final???

http://www.espnscrum.com/heineken-cup-2012-13/rugby/story/183047.html

I understand people being cocky when they display some kind of awesome skill and rugby ability, I don't agree with it at all, but it makes some sense.

But something about a nobber like Armitage getting an easy run-in try off the back of other peoples' work only to then act like a douche about it really grinds.

Armitage is a complete d1ckw@d, but I do think it a bit funny that people call for the morals of days gone by when most books by players from the last 50 years talk about regular occurences of punching, elbowing, headbutts and gouging not just at the bottom of a pile but simply in open play because the ref's back was turned and there weren't several cameras at every game.

Personally I'd rather be waved at by a player that was faster than me than punched off the ball or elbowed and wedgied at the bottom of a ruck because I'd dared to step a prop in the first half.

fa0019 wrote:Rokocoko did it every time he scored.... Every time. Strange no one brought up the scandal then???

Was it a little crass, perhaps but given he has little form for this sort of stuff and given the moment I think people should relax just a little. If he wasn't english people I bet people wouldn't have even mentioned it.

Pacific Islanders are famed for it.

True, Fa but some people don't have the charisma to carry it off.

And some, well, just do:

markb wrote:Armitage is a complete d1ckw@d, but I do think it a bit funny that people call for the morals of days gone by when most books by players from the last 50 years talk about regular occurences of punching, elbowing, headbutts and gouging not just at the bottom of a pile but simply in open play because the ref's back was turned and there weren't several cameras at every game.

Personally I'd rather be waved at by a player that was faster than me than punched off the ball or elbowed and wedgied at the bottom of a ruck because I'd dared to step a prop in the first half.

why have to choose though? Better to say you wouldn't like to be wedgied by a guy who earlier waved to you on passing for a try. That would be a very bad day at the office indeed.

Mark punches and off the ball stuff was high but is the same not true on the local park every Saturday.

So long as rugby is a full contact sport played in close quarters there will be incidents like that.

Yes being taunted and jeering is less painful than an off the ball hit but equally read the comments on the thread about that French bloke banned for spitting on someone.

All the comments were from rugby players saying they accept a player lashing out with a fist every now and again but no way could they accept spitting into someones face.

Now this isn't anywhere near as disgracful as spitting on an opponent but the same logic applies. It might be less painful than an illegal hit etc. but it damn sure isnt a part of what the game is about.

Levitation techniques are also creeping into the game, as George'spic shows. There should be no Buddhist coaches allowed in Pro12.

George Carlin wrote:

fa0019 wrote:Rokocoko did it every time he scored.... Every time. Strange no one brought up the scandal then???

Was it a little crass, perhaps but given he has little form for this sort of stuff and given the moment I think people should relax just a little. If he wasn't english people I bet people wouldn't have even mentioned it.

Pacific Islanders are famed for it.

True, Fa but some people don't have the charisma to carry it off.

And some, well, just do:

Much as I love Matawalu I do wish he'd refrain from that sort of thing, not least cause the Scotstourn try area is tiny and I'm always scared he'll leap straight off the back!

IMHO none of it is what the game is about. Like I said, Armitage is a tool and deserves all the criticism he gets, but to claim things were better back in the day is a nonsense. Different aspects of the same disrespect and players getting away with what they can to get one over the opposition, it's just that some are more readily accepted by certain parts of the playing community due to the folklore.

I have no problem with Ashton. I would love to see him fock up a try because he was trying to look flash though.

If you do that sh1t, you better make sure you actually score.

There was a great Will Carling one where he was focked out into the dead ball area because he was too cavalier in touching down.

An Argie playing for (I think) London Irish had a bad one a few years ago too.

Read in the paper today that Rougerie patted Armitage on the head when Brock James ran in for his try. Probably p!ssed him off so he got revenge later.

On the tweet. WTF? He's just won the HC. Would he not be in a gracious mood? Why on earth is he insulting people on the internet?

fa0019 wrote:So when rokocoko did it for 10 years straight it was just dominance but when Armitage does it once its arrogance because he happens to be english... Even though he spent very few years in England... Growing up mainly in the Caribbean and France.

I once played a British army 7s team a few years back.... Most were Fijians. They were awesome, blew my good side out the water.
I remember chasing down their winger and he would purposely slow down to let me catch up and then accelerate away with a fat grin on his face... Did it twice before I gave up. It was cheeky sure, but its part of the game. It's the same thing.

Whenever I smashed especially opposite numbers in the tackle I made sure they knew about it afterwards.. Was it arrogant, a little sure but it was part of the package to get them thinking twice about coming down your channel again.

Going back to Armitage, In the end it was a cup final and emotions were high. People should get off their high horse. Does he do it often, not that I can remember so give him a break.

Well said. It's all just a bit of gamesmanship, no different to when a pen is won at scrum time and the players pat their oppo's on the cheek or head, or clap and whoop in their faces. Only difference I can see is that it's Armitage and a lot of people hate him for dodgy antics, but then those same will happily find reasons to excuse other players dodgy antics too...

To quote another "haters gonna hate"

Oh and fair enough what he said to Moore, as a man that makes a living tweeting mainly negative things about other people he can only expect to cop flak in return. I'm sure he didn't even blink when he read it, and still found the time to plug his book.

Looseheaded wrote:I understand people being cocky when they display some kind of awesome skill and rugby ability, I don't agree with it at all, but it makes some sense.

But something about a nobber like Armitage getting an easy run-in try off the back of other peoples' work only to then act like a douche about it really grinds.

That's not quite true though, in the final moments Byrne had the chance to put his hooker in at the corner from about 15m's out with no one in front but cocked it up totally, that then lead to the knock on and the loss. In the Amlin Kearney managed to touch the line before dotting down in a similar situation. There was a fair bit of skill from Delon and Lobbe (far better then Parisse to my mind) to have the nerve to go for the hail mary and the skill to take that chance.

yappysnap wrote:

fa0019 wrote:So when rokocoko did it for 10 years straight it was just dominance but when Armitage does it once its arrogance because he happens to be english... Even though he spent very few years in England... Growing up mainly in the Caribbean and France.

I once played a British army 7s team a few years back.... Most were Fijians. They were awesome, blew my good side out the water.
I remember chasing down their winger and he would purposely slow down to let me catch up and then accelerate away with a fat grin on his face... Did it twice before I gave up. It was cheeky sure, but its part of the game. It's the same thing.

Whenever I smashed especially opposite numbers in the tackle I made sure they knew about it afterwards.. Was it arrogant, a little sure but it was part of the package to get them thinking twice about coming down your channel again.

Going back to Armitage, In the end it was a cup final and emotions were high. People should get off their high horse. Does he do it often, not that I can remember so give him a break.

Well said. It's all just a bit of gamesmanship, no different to when a pen is won at scrum time and the players pat their oppo's on the cheek or head, or clap and whoop in their faces. Only difference I can see is that it's Armitage and a lot of people hate him for dodgy antics, but then those same will happily find reasons to excuse other players dodgy antics too...

To quote another "haters gonna hate"

Oh and fair enough what he said to Moore, as a man that makes a living tweeting mainly negative things about other people he can only expect to cop flak in return. I'm sure he didn't even blink when he read it, and still found the time to plug his book.

I'm not sure it's just down to the fact that it was Armitage, your point about what happens at scrums hints at a large part of it, for some reason a lot of people accept patronising/gloating behaviour there that they don't in the act of scoring.