‘Let them play again,’ says rugby legend
AN Irish rugby legend has said Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding are ‘not bad young men’ and should be allowed to play for club and country again.
Former Ireland captain Willie John McBride claimed the players, who were unanimously acquitted of rape, had learnt a ‘severe lesson’ during a traumatic couple of months.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with Seán O’Rourke yesterday, he said: ‘All of them have issued their regrets and sadness about the affair and their apologies. I think it’s time they got back to doing what they do best, playing rugby.’
Mr McBride is president of the official Ulster Rugby Supporters’ Club and does not know either player personally.
But he described their treatment post-verdict as ‘unfair’. ‘When the alcohol is in, the common sense is out, and it is very sad that they have all got caught up in this,’ he added.
‘They have been tried [in the] press every day. These people are not guilty.’ While he believed the men should be ‘reprimanded’, Mr McBride did not think Ulster Rugby should apologise for players’ conduct on ‘time off’.
Meanwhile, an advertisement was placed in the Belfast Telegraph yesterday signed by ‘real fans standing up for the Ulster men’ calling for Ulster and Irish rugby to reinstate ‘innocent men’ to playing duties.