Friend backs captain after abuse attacking penalty decision
CONNACHT coach Andy Friend has urged his players to avoid social media platforms in the aftermath of comments directed towards his captain Paul Boyle, which a team-mate subsequently labelled abusive, in the wake of the side’s Champions Cup defeat to Bristol last weekend.
Boyle’s decision to refuse a late penalty kick at goal, which led to some dissension from within his own team at the time, prompted a hail of criticism on social media, albeit a swift trawl uncovered little evidence of abuse, unless they had been deleted by their authors or were placed on other platforms by the time former Ulster player Paddy Mcallister tweeted his supportive comments.
“Seeing a team-mate getting some of the abuse I’m seeing on Twitter is ridiculous, Paul Boyle is a young man who is playing out of his skin atm for his club,” Mcallister posted on Sunday.
“Doing a great job as a leader in the squad and has the backing from everyone. Those keyboard warriors can uppercut themselves.”
While coach Friend has admitted he was unaware of any criticism, and had not been alerted to any by his players or captain, he has urged his squad to avoid social media.
“No, and I don’t search for it either,” said Friend when asked had he seen the comments.
“I was aware of Paddy’s tweet and he’s obviously seen something. It’s unfortunately one of those things which is happening in the world at the moment.
“My message to the players is one I adhere to in that the only person worse than the bloke that writes it is the bloke that reads it. So stop reading it. Don’t worry about it. Surround yourself with the people whose opinion you want to hear.
“And I had this conversation yesterday with Paul Boyle on the phone.
“I told him I’m sure you have your parents, friends and teammates, us as coaches, five or six people who, if you’re not sure about how your decision was taken, check in with those people.
“Don’t check with anyone else. Because we will tell you. And my honest opinion with Paul was I backed him.
“If Paul wants to make that decision, he’s the skipper on the night, good luck to him. “And I’ll stay that way forever. “But nobody can comment on that unless you’re out there in the moment. And that’s why I will always leave it to a skipper to make the call and I will back it all the way.”
Boyle’s colleague Eoghan Masterson said he and his colleagues were also unaware that his captain had received abuse.
“We haven’t talked about any Twitter abuse or anything like that. I did see Paddy’s tweet. I didn’t actually see any tweets myself. Maybe if there were any, they were few and far between.”
Connacht welcome back lock duo Quinn Roux and Gavin Thornbury for Sunday’s derby visit of Ulster to Galway but Bundee Aki is rested.