Hostile coaches show signs of joining the war on scrutiny

Across all sports I have noticed a rise in hostility from managers in particular to fair questions from reporters. A dark fear is that the war against scrutiny started in Donald Trump’s America is spreading even to the interview zones of stadiums.

This concern may be overstretched, but the indignation shown by many coaches – sometimes when things they themselves have said are repeated back to them – suggests something is going on.

An example at Twickenham at the weekend was Eddie Jones questioning Rhys Patchell’s “bottle” and then objecting to questions about how those

pre-match musings had turned out. “I made some comments before the game – I’m talking about the game now. If you want to talk about the game, ask me a question,” Jones said. “I don’t want to talk about comments I made before the game. I make comments and I raise issues. If you don’t want me to do that, I won’t do it.”

On one level this is harmless routine sparring. Journalists dish it out, and should take it in return. But reasonable, factual questions are not polemical columns. They are polite crossexamination. And they must be defended, and stuck with, as the BBC’S rugby reporters for example showed at Twickenham.