Stephen Jones Journalist

Hi Guys

First article on here. I thought i would bring up one of my Pet Peeves. Stephen Jones.

Has the man a clue about rugby or does he write what he does to wind people up.

To show what a clue the man has i was looking through a few of his old articles and came across this.

Its his Lions team for 2009

15 Lee Byrne (Wales)
14 Rob Kearney (Ireland)
13 Tom Shanklin (Wales)
12 Gavin Henson (Wales)
11 Shane Williams (Wales)
10 Stephen Jones (Wales)
9 Mike Phillips (Wales)
1 Gethin Jenkins (Wales)
2 Ross Ford (Scotland)
3 Jerry Flannery (Ireland)
4 Paul O’Connell (Ireland)
5 Alun-Wyn Jones (Wales)
6 Tom Croft (England)
8 Ryan Jones (capt) (Wales)
7 David Wallace (Ireland)

Jerry Flannery at tight head,that can't be right!

But yeah he's pretty clueless in general,he's a Welsh George Hook.

That couldnt be his team, is it? Mans a fool anyway. A joke of a writer.

that is his team. how i laughed when i saw it

Two full backs and two hookers. Why not? No one would be expecting it!

He never rated Irish teams or players. I remember him saying he wouldn't have Brian O'Driscoll or Paul O'Connell in his Lions squad!! However, recently he seems to have changed his tune on Irish teams. He praised Ireland's performance against England and rated Leinster as the best team in Europe. Which I found shocking, because he had spent the previous ten years refusing to give Irish rugby any credit. I remember he once wrote that the 'hand of Back' incident against Munster was one of his favourite Heineken Cup moments.

I think a lot of what he writes is tongue in cheek. Just look at his laughable continued attempts to deride New Zealand rugby. Mostly he just refuses to admit they're any good. Which is plain mad. And he takes every opportunity to get under their skin. There should be no Haka according to Jones.

There's no way he put Flannery at TH, did he? I remember that team vaguely though. A group of journalists met up and picked their teams and Jones was trying to be particularly controversial by not having BOD in his team and making Ryan Jones captain. The man is a complete idiot but he's also obviously intentionally being controversial all of the time so just don't bother reading his stuff.

I wish the old 606 had a search function so I could dig out some of the stupid teams you lot put out.
I assume this was written just after the 6 nations. He got 8 of the atcual starting 15 right and honestly how many people wouldve had Ugo Monye & Fitzgerald down as starters ahead of SWilliams?

Infact if you look at the final test 15 which actually managed to win a game you wouldve told somneone they needed their head examined if theyd suggested this pre torunamnet (or even now!):

15 FB Rob Kearney
14 W Ugo Monye
13 C Tommy Bowe
12 C Riki Flutey
11 W Shane Williams
10 FH Stephen Jones
9 SH Mike Phillips
1 P Andrew Sheridan
2 H Matthew Rees
3 P Phil Vickery
4 L Simon Shaw
5 L Paul O'Connell (c)
6 F Joe Worsley
7 F Martyn Williams
8 N8 Jamie Heaslip



Having said that Jones is a gibbon and well known for saying ridiculous things for attention.

Ever so slight wales bias in that selection.....seriously hard to believe he actually thought that was the best team....

this is also difficult to believe
"rugby union correspondent for The Times and The Sunday Times, and has been for over 20 years and has been twice-named Sports Correspondent of the Year by the Sports Journalists' Association."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Jones_%28journalist%29

He was also an advocate of Noon and Tindall playing at centre....at the same time!

Noon & Tindall - bit like the Maginot line.

Immovable, impregnible, can't get through it - so let's just go around it.

HammerofThunor wrote:He was also an advocate of Noon and Tindall playing at centre....at the same time!

So was Andy Robinson and people still employ him as well.

Stephen Jones Journalist?says it all really only competion as worst Rugby Journalist is Chris Rattue.I remember his comments about Rikki Flutey before the final Lions test in SA 2009.Did`nt have a good word for him,after Lions win he was drooling over Flutey,his tackling etc.Never had a good word for all Blacks all poached south sea islanders according to him etc.He`s so bad he makes Stuart Barnes look good and that takes some doing.

C'mon Rattue has some quality opinions.

Spiro Zavos, on the other hand...

On Rattue GG we beg to differ,yes he does have some good articles,but when he`s doing hatchet jobs he`s awful.

He's not very popular though he's calmed down after the incident where he got banned from welsh press confrances over the Gavin Henson's autobiography. when Alfie wouldn't do the conference. I don't read what he publishes though i could do a better job of reporting myself