Jonathan Davies victim of Twitter abuse and threats after displacing Brian O'Driscoll in Lions side for deciding Test

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Jonathan Davies victim of Twitter abuse and threats after displacing Brian O'Driscoll in Lions side for deciding Test

The Scarlets and Wales centre was one of the standout performers during the 2-1 series success over the Wallabies and was given the vote to play alongside countryman Jamie Roberts in Sydney.

Coach Warren Gatland’s selection, which included nine Welshmen in the starting XV, gave rise to some serious criticism from the likes of Lions’ great Willie John McBride and former Ireland and Lions hooker Keith Wood.

The opposition to Gatland’s decision – particularly in relation to O’Driscoll – became further inflamed on Twitter, where a handful of supporters posted threatening messages towards Davies.

Davies said: “There was a lot of stuff on Twitter but I tried not to take too much notice of it. I had some good advice from players like Mike Phillips who just told me to ignore it.

“I was just grateful to have been given the opportunity to win the series. I did get a bit of verbal abuse and people wanting to break my legs and stuff. But I didn’t really care.


“I did feel like public enemy number one and there was a lot of pressure. But I felt like I had performed well under pressure.

“It was a great experience and I enjoyed every minute. Brian congratulated me afterwards and said well done. We were tight as a squad and Brian will be glad to have it on his CV.”

Davies will now turn his attention to helping the Scarlets re-establish themselves as a force in European club rugby.

“I have had six weeks offf and I’ve enjoyed it. I’ve been away on holiday and can’t wait to get back playing.”




Pretty disgusting stuff, rugby becoming more popular is attracting football like behaviour

funnyExiledScot wrote:

rodders wrote:OK

15 Halfpenny
14 North
13 Payne
12 Marshall
11 Gilroy
10 Hanaran
9 Youngs
8 Faletau
6 Henderson
7 Tipuric
5 AWJ (C)
4 Parling
3 Cole
2 Youngs
1 Corbs

Sorry, no Scots. No BOD. No "blend of four nations". Total betrayal of the Lions. Death threats all round.......

Sorry if it was up to me I'd have selected Gray instead of AWJ but Gatland is my forwards coach.....  

flyhalffactory wrote:
What is this "I lose my credibility thing"

1. I never stated they were big buddies, it wasn't photographs it was constant dialogue to the press throughout the tour.
2. You stated that Gatland dropped BOD due to the fact that the young Welsh players were intimidated by him..... Cuthbert wasn't going to play in the 3rd test, Davies wouldn't have played in the 3rd test, Halfpenny was player of the tournament so don't tell me he was intimidated and the North-God!!, SHOW ME THE LINK where Gatland states he dropped BOD for that reason.
3. It was the other way around where Davies bawled at the then acting captain BOD that he was nowhere near defending the outside centre position but was at the base of the ruck and Bowe and himself were covering a 3-2 overlap
4. BOD went into the dressing room after the Warratahs game and stated that that was as complete a performance as he had ever seen from a centre in a Lions jersey...... He wasn't prompted by the press he just stated it "How good was that performance boys". So if you are telling me that Davies didn't have a more than a bloody good game (made the first 4 tries and scored the 5th himself) then I know exactly where you are coming from. http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/Man-good-Jonathan-Davies/story-19326753-detail/story.html#axzz2dHGaeB3L

Just to give you the benefit of the doubt I googled "Gatland gives reasons for dropping Brian O'Driscoll" and "Gatland states Brian O'Driscoll intimidates" and nothing has come up.

Why do you keep peddling this rubbish,there were 4 Lions defenders to 3 Oz attackers and Davies got caught ball watching.Show us a picture where Bod is at the base of the ruck for that try if you can.Lydiate is the player to the right of the ruck and BoD is several feet outside him organising the defense while Davies was daydreaming and letting the Aussies level the series.

Miley Cyrus twerking brought me here.  

WTF was miss Cyrus thinking?

She wasn't thinking. She has other people think for her. Speaking of which...

I do perfer twerking to twitting though.

I like Muppet.

 Seems like tw@tting is a taboo subject.

Miss Piggy brought me here.

kiakahaaotearoa wrote: Seems like tw@tting is a taboo subject.

Not if your Irish, and subject is Gatland and Davies.

minging

Minge

I guess tw@t can be used as an insult. It's true we don't say you're a minge.

Sorry thinking out loud. It just seemed like this thread was a big Magna Doodle sheet.

flyhalffactory wrote:Just to give you the benefit of the doubt I googled "Gatland gives reasons for dropping Brian O'Driscoll" and "Gatland states Brian O'Driscoll intimidates" and nothing has come up.

Excellent point FHF. The Davies twitter abuse wasn't caused by O'Driscoll, nor by Wood nor any other pundit. It was solely caused by Gatland and specifically his inability to explain his decision. In that vacuum all sorts of misguided theories rush in to fill the void and the totally innocent Davies was collateral damage.

Gatland could easily have avoided having one of his players targeted in this disgusting way and damaging the wider Lions support by clearly taking responsibility for the decision when he made it and explaining why. Does he not care about his players or the Lions - has he a different goal in mind or is he just incompetent?

Auckster.

Could I respectfully refer you to pages 1 to 13 of this thread.

The Great Aukster wrote:

flyhalffactory wrote:Just to give you the benefit of the doubt I googled "Gatland gives reasons for dropping Brian O'Driscoll" and "Gatland states Brian O'Driscoll intimidates" and nothing has come up.

Excellent point FHF. The Davies twitter abuse wasn't caused by O'Driscoll, nor by Wood nor any other pundit. It was solely caused by Gatland and specifically his inability to explain his decision. In that vacuum all sorts of misguided theories rush in to fill the void and the totally innocent Davies was collateral damage.

Gatland could easily have avoided having one of his players targeted in this disgusting way and damaging the wider Lions support by clearly taking responsibility for the decision when he made it and explaining why. Does he not care about his players or the Lions - has he a different goal in mind or is he just incompetent?

Pathetic. If you replace BOD with Harry Styles, then this isn't very far away from some teenager sulking because someone's had a pop at 1Direction.

Norfolklass wrote:

The Great Aukster wrote:

flyhalffactory wrote:Just to give you the benefit of the doubt I googled "Gatland gives reasons for dropping Brian O'Driscoll" and "Gatland states Brian O'Driscoll intimidates" and nothing has come up.

Excellent point FHF. The Davies twitter abuse wasn't caused by O'Driscoll, nor by Wood nor any other pundit. It was solely caused by Gatland and specifically his inability to explain his decision. In that vacuum all sorts of misguided theories rush in to fill the void and the totally innocent Davies was collateral damage.

Gatland could easily have avoided having one of his players targeted in this disgusting way and damaging the wider Lions support by clearly taking responsibility for the decision when he made it and explaining why. Does he not care about his players or the Lions - has he a different goal in mind or is he just incompetent?

Pathetic. If you replace BOD with Harry Styles, then this isn't very far away from some teenager sulking because someone's had a pop at 1Direction.

Thought the thread was started by someone because a few twitters had a pop at JD?  Can we replace JD with Harry Styles also?

Anyway, Lass. Who is Harry Styles?

Norfolklass wrote:

The Great Aukster wrote:

flyhalffactory wrote:Just to give you the benefit of the doubt I googled "Gatland gives reasons for dropping Brian O'Driscoll" and "Gatland states Brian O'Driscoll intimidates" and nothing has come up.

Excellent point FHF. The Davies twitter abuse wasn't caused by O'Driscoll, nor by Wood nor any other pundit. It was solely caused by Gatland and specifically his inability to explain his decision. In that vacuum all sorts of misguided theories rush in to fill the void and the totally innocent Davies was collateral damage.

Gatland could easily have avoided having one of his players targeted in this disgusting way and damaging the wider Lions support by clearly taking responsibility for the decision when he made it and explaining why. Does he not care about his players or the Lions - has he a different goal in mind or is he just incompetent?

Pathetic. If you replace BOD with Harry Styles, then this isn't very far away from some teenager sulking because someone's had a pop at 1Direction.

Niall Horan would be a better replacement. 



Munchian - where have you been hiding that you don't know who Harry is  

Whos that standing next to Niall Horan?

Sin é wrote:Intimidation wasn't the word used by Gatland as far as I can recall - it was more that 'the young players went into their shells in his presence'.

I would interpret that as meaning that they were too afraid to try anything in case he would bawl them out.

If that was the case, that's a serious problem and suggests it was the right thing to drop O'Driscoll. You can't have the rest of the backline treading on eggshells, you want them to have the confidence to play.

Sin é wrote:1/2penny did come out of his shell in the last Test - up to that he kicked his points and made his tackles. He didn't do much in attack.

So once O'Driscoll's out of the side, Halfpenny comes alive. Aren't you supposed to be arguing that BOD shouldn't have been dropped?

aucklandlaurie wrote:
Whos that standing next to Niall Horan?

Cant believe you know who Niall Horan is. Good Mullingar lad like meself. Showbiz capital of Ireland.

aucklandlaurie wrote:
WTF was miss Cyrus thinking?

I agree. Jeez she made a show of herself.

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:

Sin é wrote:Intimidation wasn't the word used by Gatland as far as I can recall - it was more that 'the young players went into their shells in his presence'.

I would interpret that as meaning that they were too afraid to try anything in case he would bawl them out.

If that was the case, that's a serious problem and suggests it was the right thing to drop O'Driscoll. You can't have the rest of the backline treading on eggshells, you want them to have the confidence to play.

Sin é wrote:1/2penny did come out of his shell in the last Test - up to that he kicked his points and made his tackles. He didn't do much in attack.

So once O'Driscoll's out of the side, Halfpenny comes alive. Aren't you supposed to be arguing that BOD shouldn't have been dropped?

Yea, we know that Gatland's plan was to use the Lions to try and build up the confidence of his Wales team so that eventually they might get around to beating a SH team on their own.

and you will be first in line to congratulate wales on such a win, too be sure, to be sure:kiss: 

gavstar wrote:and you will be first in line to congratulate wales on such a win, too be sure, to be sure:kiss: 

Sure will - it will be a great relief to us all when it finally happens.

It will truly be a great relief for us Sin. Why you? Don't tell me you're going to start hanging on to our tails next...

The Saint wrote:It will truly be a great relief for us Sin. Why you? Don't tell me you're going to start hanging on to our tails next...

Hanging onto other's coat tails seems to be a Welsh trait going on what your next door neighbours have to say about you.  

Well how come it's the ones that keep losing to Wales hanging on to SH coat tails? Don't worry Sin we'll win next years 6 Nations (again) for Ireland as well as ourselves . #celticarmy

The Saint wrote:Well how come it's the ones that keep losing to Wales hanging on to SH coat tails? Don't worry Sin we'll win next years 6 Nations (again) for Ireland as well as ourselves . #celticarmy

Well you won't be winning any Heineken Cups in the near future anyway. The whole of Wales will have to decamp to France to do that.

As a matter of interest, are there any Welsh players who have won a Heineken Cup anywhere?

I wonder why it's only Ireland fans who seem to big up the club game over the international game. Couldn't be anything to do with one decent piece of silverware every solar eclipse could it?  

As far as I know there have been Welsh players playing for Wasps, Toulouse and Toulon when they won the Heineken Cup.

Sin é wrote:
As a matter of interest, are there any Welsh players who have won a Heineken Cup anywhere?

You can argue that it makes Gatland's success with Wales all the more impressive, given that it's come against the back-drop of regional chaos.

Would you agree?

Sin é wrote:
As a matter of interest, are there any Welsh players who have won a Heineken Cup anywhere?

Rhys Ruddock?

Sin é wrote:

Norfolklass wrote:

The Great Aukster wrote:

flyhalffactory wrote:Just to give you the benefit of the doubt I googled "Gatland gives reasons for dropping Brian O'Driscoll" and "Gatland states Brian O'Driscoll intimidates" and nothing has come up.

Excellent point FHF. The Davies twitter abuse wasn't caused by O'Driscoll, nor by Wood nor any other pundit. It was solely caused by Gatland and specifically his inability to explain his decision. In that vacuum all sorts of misguided theories rush in to fill the void and the totally innocent Davies was collateral damage.

Gatland could easily have avoided having one of his players targeted in this disgusting way and damaging the wider Lions support by clearly taking responsibility for the decision when he made it and explaining why. Does he not care about his players or the Lions - has he a different goal in mind or is he just incompetent?

Pathetic. If you replace BOD with Harry Styles, then this isn't very far away from some teenager sulking because someone's had a pop at 1Direction.

Niall Horan would be a better replacement. 



Munchian - where have you been hiding that you don't know who Harry is  

hmmnn..after having googled this Mr Styles I find that he isn't much of a rugby player. Horan looks about ready to step in as Bods replacement though  

rodders wrote:

Sin é wrote:
As a matter of interest, are there any Welsh players who have won a Heineken Cup anywhere?

Rhys Ruddock?

Amlin maybe - hopefully the fact that he was born in Dublin wouldn't get in the way of the Welsh claiming him  

rodders wrote:

Sin é wrote:
As a matter of interest, are there any Welsh players who have won a Heineken Cup anywhere?

Rhys Ruddock?

Gareth Thomas? Toulouse '05.

Sin é wrote:

rodders wrote:

Sin é wrote:
As a matter of interest, are there any Welsh players who have won a Heineken Cup anywhere?

Rhys Ruddock?

Amlin maybe - hopefully the fact that he was born in Dublin wouldn't get in the way of the Welsh claiming him   

We won't but the Ospreys academy might. Weren't good enough to be play for a world class team like Wales anyway. So he chose to become the Jared Payne's and Mike Ross' of this world....

 

What are you on about Saint. Mike Ross is Irish. Jarod Payne has never played for Ireland whereas Ruddock has. Ruddock was also born in Ireland and has an Irish mum. Payne has no connections (that I know of anyway)

Sin é wrote:

rodders wrote:

Sin é wrote:
As a matter of interest, are there any Welsh players who have won a Heineken Cup anywhere?

Rhys Ruddock?

Amlin maybe - hopefully the fact that he was born in Dublin wouldn't get in the way of the Welsh claiming him  

In the interest of taking this thread somewhere positive. There have been 9

Alfie was one. Gethin a few months ago was the 9th. there is one other obvious one. but after that. I would be surprised if anyone will get many more without googling it.

Rob Howley is the other one you speak of? Lee Byrne came close . I honestly can't think of any more.

And Ruddock doesn't count. He is Irish.

Jenifer McLadyboy wrote:

Sin é wrote:

rodders wrote:

Sin é wrote:
As a matter of interest, are there any Welsh players who have won a Heineken Cup anywhere?

Rhys Ruddock?

Amlin maybe - hopefully the fact that he was born in Dublin wouldn't get in the way of the Welsh claiming him   

In the interest of taking this thread somewhere positive. There have been 9

Alfie was one. Gethin a few months ago was the 9th. there is one other obvious one. but after that. I would be surprised if anyone will get many more without googling it.

I bet there was one for Leicester around '01?

The Saint wrote:Rob Howley is the other one you speak of? Lee Byrne came close . I honestly can't think of any more.

yep Howley the obvious one. having scored the crucial try.

Byrne would have been the 9th instead of Gethin had the game gone the other way.

you have to go back a while for the rest.

The Saint wrote:Rob Howley is the other one you speak of? Lee Byrne came close . I honestly can't think of any more.

Good shout. Probably one of the most memorable winning tries for Wasps against Toulouse.

None for Leicester.

Hang on a darn minute didn't Cardiff win the heino in 97?

Bateman for Saints?

we had this quiz on Leinsterfans and the only other one I got is now a sky pundit.

After that, it gets really hard.

No, Toulouse or Brive did, and there was no involvement from Scottish or French teams (I could be wrong though).

And did Shaun Payne get it with Munster or was he too late?

rodders wrote:Bateman for Saints?

he shoots. he scores.