13 Barbarians players learn their fate

https://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-union/55233540

Full details disclosed about the England-Barbarians cancellation.

This is pretty much as stupid as it gets.

To have signed an agreement directly saying not to do this kind of thing, ask the management team in person if they can do it who refuse, do it anyway (twice for some), then lie about it - that really is an incredible sequence of events.

With the amount of technology people carry around with themselves (i.e smartphones) it really is no surprise that they got caught. Did they really think this was like a 1980s training camp, where you slipped off during the morning run to fit in a few pints in the Red Lion on the way?

Most of them were probably tracked via their phones and I wouldn't be surprised if fans posted pictures on social media which was then picked up by the Media staff. It's just bizarre that they thought they wouldn't get caught. I have zero sympathy for them. Idiots.

Really does sum up the stupidity doesn't it!

Even in normal times you have to question senior professionals going out drinking starting in the afternoon and eating macdonalds as their preparation for a major game. Really does show that things havent changed as much as we might think and they still treat the sport like a prep school tour.

Mr Bounce wrote:With the amount of technology people carry around with themselves (i.e smartphones) it really is no surprise that they got caught. Did they really think this was like a 1980s training camp, where you slipped off during the morning run to fit in a few pints in the Red Lion on the way?

Most of them were probably tracked via their phones and I wouldn't be surprised if fans posted pictures on social media which was then picked up by the Media staff. It's just bizarre that they thought they wouldn't get caught. I have zero sympathy for them. Idiots.

You'd probably be surprised about what players did get away with during lockdown, then.

rugby racing and beer wrote:

Mr Bounce wrote:With the amount of technology people carry around with themselves (i.e smartphones) it really is no surprise that they got caught. Did they really think this was like a 1980s training camp, where you slipped off during the morning run to fit in a few pints in the Red Lion on the way?

Most of them were probably tracked via their phones and I wouldn't be surprised if fans posted pictures on social media which was then picked up by the Media staff. It's just bizarre that they thought they wouldn't get caught. I have zero sympathy for them. Idiots.

You'd probably be surprised about what players did get away with during lockdown, then.

Actually I probably wouldn't. Fact is they signed a contract to be in a bubble and to not go out for beers en masse, so it's no surprise that they've been disciplined. It's what bugs me about elite sportspeople and celebrities. Rita Ora for one - did a private gig abroad, came back, didn't self-isolate and also thought it'd be a good idea to throw a 30th birthday party. I'm sure she's very sorry, but it irritates when the privileged don't exactly get punished. In this instance I am glad that the RFU has made an example of the players that did get caught.

More people have broken the rules in one way or another than haven't during the last 9 months. The performative moral righteousness is tiring and smacks of hypocrisy.

You sounded incredulous that they could do something like this, Bounce. I'd suggest you'd be shocked if you realised what rugby players/priviliged young sportspeople in general (or other entertainers) have done and got away with during this time.

The main issue for me would be lying. If you f up, just man up and admit it.

The standard whataboutery argument that has zero relevance to the specifics of this incident.

And yet we have to put up with accusations that the players believe 'it's the 1980s' and more hand wringing moralism as if this is an actual scandal, rather than the media pivoting to create stories for their ailing business model that relies on algorithm-beating sensationalism at a time when the 'real' news is either hard to find or hard to publish in a competent manner. It seems some people lap this sort of stuff up but it just leaves me shrugging my shoulders. I said it before on the other thread, this whole idea of 'a bubble' is just nonsensical jargon designed to create a mental sense of something that isn't actually real and doesn't prevent the spread of a highly contagious virus.

Maybe it's just the internet that creates this odd type of culture around it but this kind of whinging doesn't reflect my experiences of rugby in the real world. Not sure when or why it started other than the fact culture and society in general has become full of whingers.

They shouldn't have lied when caught though. That I can't stand.

So it's now the press' fault that a bunch of players got caught out for having a drinking session outside of where they were supposed to be when specifically told they should stay put? Do me a favour. This is a professional sport, not a weekend jolly game club, hence my comparison to the amateur 80s. Avoiding the use of journalistic jargon which you have got so angry about, the players all signed a contract stating they would remain where they were asked to, but then were stupid enough to a) get caught on a drinking session in a different place, and b) then lie about it. They deserve everything they get. It has nothing to do with what other rugby players did.

The press had nothing to do with the players' actions. These idiots put a big game in jeopardy because of their selfish actions, and brought the game into disrepute as a result. What sports journalist would NOT jump on that story? I don't believe everything in the press, but the fact remains: they were bang to rights and like an arrested shoplifter with a bottle of JD and a PS5 in their coat, continued to protest their innocence until presented with damning evidence.

No, not really. I said what I said about the press.

I simply don't think what they've done is 'like the 1980s', as if that is a pejorative in any shape or form. It seems to me that the spirit of the Barbarians is an important antidote comprising the best of the old rugby values in the face of an increasing corporatism that is sucking much of what we'd recognise as rugby culture out of the top end of the sport. Some may enjoy that, I think most proper rugby fans are at least ambivalent about it.

Things always read poorly in the cold light of day. I wonder if everyone had their sexual escapades read out in a court of law, for instance, they wouldn't at least cringe at what felt normal in the moment. This is yet another mountain out of a mole hill and the force behind the scorn seems at least in part to be compensating for the glaring gaps in sense and conviction behind the coronavirus 'restrictions' in the first place; namely the idea of the bubble in this case. There were Fijian players travelling in to the Barbarians camp from outside said bubble who had come from the other side of the world. They had, I believe, 6 days of 'isolation' before joining. The whole notion is broken from the start so the hand wringing is at the very least nonsensical and inconsistent.

I have far greater issue with lying to authorities than I do with the players breaking the 'rules' in the first place. But really, time to move on. As I said, the majority of the country has or did break the rules in one way or another during the last 9 months. He who is without sin and all that...