Sport legend says it’s time for players to make return
Willie John Mcbride RUGBY legend Willie John Mcbride has called for Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding to be reinstated.
The 77-year-old said the pair have “learned their lesson” and it’s time for them to make a return to Ulster Rugby.
He added: “It’s a sad affair. You know what they say, ‘When the alcohol is in, common sense is out’.
“It’s very sad that they’ve all got caught up in this. The guys have come through a very traumatic couple of months.
“It’s totally unfair [to get rid of them]. These people were found not guilty. It’s time they were back playing rugby again.”
Speaking yesterday on RTE’S Today with Sean O’rourke, the former Lions star laughed off the suggestion Olding drank “eight cans of Carlsberg, four pints of Guinness, two gins, five vodka and lemonades and three shots of tequila and sambuca”, on the night of the alleged rape in June 2016.
Mcbride laughed: “He’s some drinker. I don’t honestly believe that.”
The President of the Official Supporters Club of Ulster Rugby noted the complainant had not received the exposure as the two rugby players, but acknowledged that it’s “sad for her as well”.
He said: “These young people, all of them, are going to regret this for the rest of their lives.”
The Co Antrim man accepted the actions of Jackson and Olding brought the game into disrepute.
However, he acknowledged “they carried themselves very well through that [trial], hopefully people will see that these are not bad young men”.
Mcbride famously captained the Lions on their successful 1974 tour of South Africa.
He was also part of the 1968 squad, who were described as the “worst-behaved team ever to tour South Africa” by the Johannesburgbased Sunday Times.
O’rourke mentioned some of the foreign trips that Mcbride was on where “the behaviour was beyond belief”.
In reply, he said: “We’ve all done silly things in our time.”