Doh! Now Abendanon hits back at Goode
“Abendanon sent Goode a tweet with an image of Homer Simpson slowly backing into a bush until he was invisible”
Clermont star Nick Abendanon has poked a bit of gentle fun at the embarrassing plight of his English compatriot Andy Goode. TV commentator Goode, once a fine fly-half with Leicester, said on Twitter that Toulon centre Mathieu Bastareaud deserved a very long ban for issuing a homophobic insult.
That was before, to his great discomfort, remarks he had made, himself, in previous years surfaced with homosexual terminology.
Goode felt the need to say: “In the past few days, personal comments I made on Twitter seven years ago have been brought to my attention.
“The language I used back then is wrong and, no matter what the circumstances, I apologise unreservedly. I have to hold myself to the same standards I demand of others.”
In his exposed tweets Goode had called one player ‘a fag with ten chins’ and another ‘a little fudger’.
Abendanon added a humorous postscript in a tweet entitled Andy Goode This Morning, showing an image of Homer Simpson slowly backing into a bush until he was invisible.
Bastareaud had apologised, too, for his heated remark to Treviso player Sebastian Negri and was banned for three games by European bosses. You might have thought that should have been the end of the matter.
Not a bit of it. Now Toulon and Brive bosses as well as those governing the European Champions Cup are all-a-twitter.
Brive? What could they possibly have to do with the whole thing. Well, Simon Gillham, their English vicepresident, for whom Goode played for two seasons, jumped in to support his extreme stance. And, for good measure, lambasted Toulon president Mourad Boudjellal for his intemperate comments on Bastareaud’s European judges.
Gillham said: “Totally agree, Andy. Also no room for Boudjellal’s line of defence that the Mormons of European rugby might misunderstand the banter.” One may feel he should have thought twice about entering the fray on such flimsy footing. Especially in the light of Goode’s apology.
Boudjellal is now the centre of a disciplinary investigation for saying: “What I fear is the Mormon side of European Professional Clubs Rugby with their Welsh and Irish. They are people who sell morality when they don’t have any.
“Same as the ministers who have themselves whipped in private while passing for clean guys in public.”
Not content with that, he said he would blame Gillham for his intrusion if he were to face charges.
While, at the same time, saying Gillham’s club indulged in practices that had no place in the Top 14. Namely, delivering slippery rugby balls to opposing hookers when it rained.
This was a reference to Toulon’s defeat at Brive in their most recent Top 14 encounter. And to think it all started with two angry words in response to a provocation in the heat of battle!
Another man with controversiallyused words on his mind is former Clermont tough guy Jamie Cudmore, who recently resigned as an Oyonnax coach. The words in question are those that players suspected of having concussion are required to list for a memory test.
Cudmore, who is leading a campaign to have anyone showing such symptoms removed from the game, makes the claim that players prepare for such a test like students.
He says: “I have seen players revising and learning the responses by heart so they can return to the pitch in case of testing.
“It is a lack of education based on old school culture. Guys don’t realise they are gambling with their heads and, especially, giving a bad example to kids who watch them and want to imitate them.”
Cudmore is suing Clermont for what he claims was negligent handling of his own concussion during his time with them.
World Rugby guidelines say it is imperative that players with even a suspected concussion should take no further part in the match or training session.
Cudmore adds: “It is urgent we respect these rules. But, in professional rugby, in the name of the spectacle and result, they have put these testing protocols in place so the best players can get back on the pitch.”
In fact, he alleges that Oyonnax, bottom of the Top 14, put players back on the pitch three times when, they should not have done so.
And it is because his arguments were ignored that he resigned.
The controversy has been freshened by a spectacular collision that left young Clermont winger Samuel Ezeala out for the count last week.
“It’s all the more annoying to see everyone talking about it and no-one doing anything,” said Cudmore. “There are more concussions every week. There were nine in the last seven Top 14 games. Samuel’s was the most spectacular, but that is not to say the others were less dangerous.”
Cudmore has urged Federation vice-president Serge Simon, a doctor, to persuade the League to follow the line he is proposing. He concluded: “We have to stop players returning to the pitch in these conditions, but it is always hard to change traditions.”