No doubt... Cipriani brought the game into disrepute
“The RPA should be encouraging young players to follow the example of Jonny Wilkinson”
Am I the only one who wonders why so much media time is being spent on the ‘bad boys’ of the game who, one way or another, failed to make the grade. Two players shown to have the talent but not the temperament needed to play international rugby – one off-field, one on – have captured the media for once again failing to understand how the modern game works.
It may just be that with it still being currently off-season the Press have nothing else to write about but I think it exposes a bigger issue that players have to realise and address.
I am certainly not trying to pretend that when I played we were all saints, far from it, but in those days we had little or no public profile outside the rugby community enabling us to travel under the editorial Press (front pages) radar.
There were phones but not smart phones with cameras so it was far more difficult for people to document what went on, which is a blessing because it has enabled the legion of stories of ‘what goes on tour stays on tour’ heard at many events to flourish when the truth was probably quite boring.
The changes in society and the increasing public awareness of the game of rugby have changed the rules of what was once a sport described as a ‘game for hooligans played by gentlemen’.
Gone are the days when a punch-up on the pitch was dismissed by the great Bill McClaren as ‘players introducing themselves’, or a bit of ‘handbag waving’ and as much as I hate to say, so are the post-match and on-tour shenanigans that were very much part of the amateur game.
Players are now a commodity of the game 24hrs a day. They have signed up to being the public face, image and, yes, role models; in fact part of the money they receive from the RFU is to use their intellectual property and image rights.
Part of being professional is building a profile that will attract sponsors and increase earnings for club, country and player, but it is player profiles which are the most vulnerable as a single incident can destroy years of good work slowly building the ‘right image’.
Chris Ashton’s flare up on the pitch is something that was almost a standard weekly occurrence, but since the over critical analysis by various rugby related TV shows, which also led to the introduction of the TMO, players can no longer expect to get away with it scot-free.
Of the two current ‘Bad Boys’ he has been given a seven-week ban which should eventually allow him to continue his England comeback, but Danny Cipriani is, and should be, a different matter.
It’s nothing personal but I really can’t understand how both Gloucester and the RPA can argue with the RFU’s charge of conduct prejudicial to the interests of the game.
The RFU, the clubs and players are all about image and trying to increase their public appearance to bolster earnings whether through sponsorship, gate receipts or wages etc. There’s nothing wrong with that but it does come with a set of rules that have to be followed.
It wasn’t long ago that the RFU found themselves with a big problem because of player behaviour, in fact it was just after the 2011 RWC. Who can forget the media frenzy surrounding the New Zealand World Cup: dwarf throwing, ferry jumping and alleged sexual harassment of a hotel worker by three high profile players, all kept the media busy for weeks but they also had a knock-on effect for the RFU.
As a result of the public reaction to the headlines the RFU were made acutely aware by a number of their sponsors that they would withdraw if things didn’t change and change quickly, which led to the appointment of Stuart Lancaster with the sole objective of improving off-field player behaviour and team image.
Lancaster’s zero tolerance of any bad behaviour, with players removed from the squad for even the slightest misdemeanor, had an immediate effect and the image of the team has improved, much to the relief of the RFU and sponsors.
The RPA statement in defence of Cipriani says it was an off-field nonrugby related incident but so were all the reported incidents in New Zealand.
The issue is that Cipriani wants to be an England player and works hard at building a public profile while also having a large section of the media who support and report him. Whether because of his rugby skills or the fact he is guaranteed to generate headlines, it is the media support which creates a problem for the RFU.
The problem with a public profile is that an incident similar to Cipriani’s but involving an average Premiership player may generate a small piece in a national paper, a player from grassroots may make a local paper, which arguably few will see or take note.
The impact on the image of the game would be negligible but days if not weeks of negative headlines like the
Metro’s ‘Scrum bag’ do damage the image of the game particularly at international level.
The RPA, instead of defending the undefendable, should be educating young players on how to deal with the modern media game and encourage them to follow the example of probably the most famous English player of modern times, Jonny Wilkinson.
Wilkinson never once made headlines for any off-field activity and let his rugby do the talking, which made him a legend of the game, a sponsors’ dream and an awful lot of money.