Stephen Jones drives me mad

[ronk]

The best way to deal with this utter moron is to not log on to the timesonline. He actually boasts about the amount of hits the website had in the wake of his deliberately controversial comments on BOD. His editors and the website advertisers must have been delighted when the site had almost half a million hits and have no doubt encouraged him to continue to write articles that court controversy.

His opinions on the final are utter nonsense. Admittedly, Hipkiss had a good game but did he actually in a one on one better our centres? Noway, never. As for Erinle, he is immensely powerful with ball in hand but his defense is at times laughable. BOD may not have had his best game on Saturday but he still looked threatening and made several half breaks, dancing round two or three players where it seemed there was no space available. If Shane Williams had made the same performance it would have been described as 'magical'.

TBH, I think NF genuinely wants Leinster to win and has as much a right to bitch and moan when the team put in a poor performance as we do as he is from Leinster. Jones, on the other hand, has found a platform for his sad narrow minded views in the Times and the best way to deal wit him is to ignore him.

BOD was very, very good. Leicester's whole gameplan revolved around neutralising him. Defensively they were bricking and wouldn't even run at him. When they wanted to go wide they ran very, very deep patterns. Several times Leicester moves broke down simply because they were so wary of his presence and position in the defensive line.

Even after he was injured he was still influential. Sexton had a lot of space to kick into because the wingers were up helping the defensive line.

[hugonaut]

As for the O'Driscoll phobia,fetish call it what you will, he is like a kid that made a stupid comment and his pride will not let him retract it, so he persists with it safe in the knowledge that some time he will be right, a bit like the hypochondriac really .

Too true. There's not one professional player or serious commentator in the Northern Hemisphere who would agree with him regarding O'Driscoll. Not one. I'd be embarrassed for him if he wasn't such a tool! It's irritating to read [because, frankly, I'll read pretty much anything about rugby, and genuinely anything about the Lions at the moment], but it's basically one absolute crank's opinion. Any knowledgeable rugby fan should hold him in contempt; he has a few fans in England, because he keeps on telling them how great they are, and f*ck it, who doesn't like praise?

[Leinster Exile]

So to summarize Jones piece, BOD may score v important tries, he may score v important drop goals, act as a flanker and provide immense defence. But thats NOT what you want for your 13 ?

[Hickiefan]

Some people concluded that I was winding up the Irish and, admittedly, they as a nation are in the Kiwi category when it comes to a total failure to spot irony. But the truth is, that I meant it. O'Driscoll, beyond any doubt, has been an all-time great for Ireland. He has never been the most consistently brilliant of players although that might have something to do with the fact that he has played in quite a few ropey Irish sides. His record with the Lions, the only true arbiter of all-time greatness, is not remotely in the same league as someone like Jeremy Guscott, who not only played in three consecutive Lions series, two of which the Lions won, but also turned some of those Tests with his own brilliance.

[/quote]


this is gold, its fair hard to spot irony when you mean it!!!
thats the bould jonesy for ya.[/quote]

Had the exact same thought. Tool

[Isaac4leinster]

Did anyone see his match report at the weekend in the british version of the sunday times? not sure if it featured in the irish version?

god it was awful...he really is amazingly anti irish...

I read it in Embra, stunned how little credit was given to Leinster. Stephen Jones is mentally ill and his sexual orientation is that he only finds wasps and leicester forwards over 6'3 and 18 stone sexually attractive.

[dipper]

The guy is bloody deluded. What's his problem? Did he get bullied by an Irish boy at school or something?

[Comer Toes]

I know the best thing is just not to read him but it’s too tempting to check it out when the missus has bought the rag already. The frustrating thing is that, unlike goms like Corkery, this guy has somehow got a few awards and his articles get coverage in Southern Hemisphere rugby pages. Check any Saffa site and they think that England are still the team to be respected in the NH, that Worsley is a guaranteed test starter and general bewilderment at the absence of Wilkinson. In 20 or 30 years time if his articles on the last 4 HEC finals are dug up you could have a very disjointed view of what actually happened. Harinorduquy and Hipkiss MOTM in 2 finals won by Irish teams. Who did he give it to last year? Heymans??

In fairness though AA Gill and Clarkson would give him a run for his money for the title of biggest prat at the Times.

[mikey]

the guy is a tool, and the rag he writes for i'd not even wipe my ar*e on.

I did make the mistake of buying it in the airport on Sunday after the final, thinking there would be some decent coverage in it - should have known better when the main photo to accompany OUR WIN was of Leicester scoring their try......

never again will I part with cash for that Murdock rag - frankly resent giving the Ozzy tw*t any money at all, but i'd not get to see much Rugby on the TV otherwise and the shambles that Setanta are in, guess that is not going to change any time soon either.

[Blue Man]

You are all being way too harsh on poor auld Jonesy, he's hilarious. Only comedian I've ever read that comes remotely close to Billy Connolly.......

No objectivity, no credibility, no point in reading him, no idea why you would bother.

[Mauler]

Kenny Logan 70 Scotland Caps, Lawrence Dallaglio 85 England Caps and 3 Lions Tests, Jeremy Guscott 65 England Caps, 8 Lions Tests.

I think I know whose Rugby opinions I might respect more than Stephen Jones …

SJ: Before we all fall out, let’s go on to centres.
JG: The easy one for me to pick is O’Driscoll.
KL: Definitely
SJ: I wouldn’t have him in my Test team.
KL: Why would you not have him? Honestly, I am worried about you writing in the paper now.
SJ: I’ll carry on as best as I can.
KL: Come on, you can’t put that in there. You cannot write that.
LD: Brian O’Driscoll has got to that stage of his career where he needs to be challenged. In a Lions context there are going to be players around him who aren’t going to worship the ground he walks on and will challenge him. It will bring out the best in him because he is a champion.
DW: He was the reason Ireland beat England. His defence was awesome.
KL: Jonesy, you need to call yourself a taxi and come back tomorrow.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/ ... =48&page=5
Brilliant put downs by Logan!

[jhc99]

After me saying that I didn't think anyone should bother reading his tripe again, feeling masochistic,I had a look at his rolling maul column today. The tool actually came up with something quite funny and ironic in response to this arse licking questioner:

Really enjoying your daily RM updates - any chance of making them permanent? On a more worrying note, I must admit to a mild panic about refereeing of the scrum. Obviously there are some things that are very difficult to referee in the front row but if refs consistently even it up then we may as well just bin it in favour of a rugby league style restart. And then where would we be? Gulp. What about a scrummaging referee? Dawsy
SJ: Slave driver! I've got better things to do than wind up Kiwis and Irish EVERY day. Whoops sorry, I mean seek the truth on the sporting fields of the world. There is still far too much guessing up front so it will never be perfect, and as for your point about rugby league scrums, I rest my case on the Wasps-Leinster Heineken Cup game last season when the second half had unopposed scrums. It was shocking!

Bizarrely he also wrote this about BOD:

Brian O'Driscoll looks lean, hungry and even rested. Is that an illusion? His combination tonight with Jamie Roberts looks tasty - delicious even. Both centres were waxing lyrical about each other this morning.

If Bod has it all left in the tank then the prospects are transformed. What would we all not give to see one sweeping, lacerating outside break through the Golden Lions ranks this evening?"

But as one reader mentioned " I would be interested to know when (before, during or after the game?) the contributor posted his "presciant" view on BOD transforming the Lions - a volte face from his previous offensive views by a sad ex also ran player who has no idea what it takes to lead or perform in international rugby."

[CiaranIrl]

Really enjoying your daily RM updates - any chance of making them permanent?

What a sap.

On a more worrying note, I must admit to a mild panic about refereeing of the scrum. Obviously there are some things that are very difficult to referee in the front row but if refs consistently even it up then we may as well just bin it in favour of a rugby league style restart. And then where would we be? Gulp. What about a scrummaging referee? Dawsy
SJ: Slave driver! I've got better things to do than wind up Kiwis and Irish EVERY day. Whoops sorry, I mean seek the truth on the sporting fields of the world. There is still far too much guessing up front so it will never be perfect, and as for your point about rugby league scrums, I rest my case on the Wasps-Leinster Heineken Cup game last season when the second half had unopposed scrums. It was shocking!"

It is a bit out there, but maybe a scrummaging referee isn't the wildest idea ever...

There have been some poor decisions by referees in this area of late, and it really is such a specialised area. Nobody I know that hasn't been a front row is fully versed in the dark arts of whatever happens in the scrum.

There was an interesting interview with Willie John McBride in Rugby World this month where he says that the thing he hates most about the modern game is uncontested scrums. He said he would put 10 props on every bench to make sure that never happened.

[jhc99]

Really enjoying your daily RM updates - any chance of making them permanent?

What a sap.

I think you hit the nail on the head there.

[Bogman]

Jones is one of those colonised Welsh folk who prostrate themselves at the altar of all things English.
An advanced case of 'Stockholm syndrome' perhaps. The man love he has for Sir Clive, Jeremy, Cipriani etc. is serious stuff. Each to his own, I suppose.

The best thing to do is ignore him though, as he feeds off angry reactions to his rubbish. The more people blow a fuse, the more he thinks he is pushing the right buttons and will keep at it.

[Paudy]

Aside from the summary versions friends have told me about or the facebook anti Jones page or ye lads summing up his idiocy I haven't wasted much time reading his views, something about him not being Irish makes me disinterested in his point of view so the only thing that sticks for me is no O Driscoll for Lions and now that Leicester deserved to win.

Certainly looks like O Driscoll is gona be the key player on this tour. Just taking up one point I saw there on number of games he'll play, judging by today they're gona need him for the first 50 of a good few games to build any kind of momentum, best bet is probably to keep him for the weekend games though I guess

[bootlace]

Weirdly it seems, that giving him publicity,and responding to him, will actually ensure that he keeps his job,any reaction to him, ie sending him e-mails etc etc,will reinforce his standing with his employer Rupert Murdoch,the more copy he receives the more his employer will think that he is bringing attention to the newspaper he writes or blogs for, "any publicity is good publicity" who knows maybe even cronies start the ball rolling and lure people into responding to him.I am sure I read somewhere tha he was boasting, he had received 650 000 responses his boss will love that,but could you imagine if he said to his boss he had received none. quite simply then a case of bye bye.

If you really want to have an impact just don't buy or link to him in any form.Boycott is a very useful tool especially when advertisers realise the sales are dropping,thus they are paying revenue to a smaller decreasing audience.

[Paudy]

It's teh ignoring a bold child philosophy though, how far can you let that go before havign to step in and do something. That, and how much praise can you give to a good child or, in this case, a rugby analyst that always gets it right (if such a writer existed that is).

On that note, how about Brent and Conor!

[sarah_lennon]

His man of the Match yesterday? Joe Worsley.

Professional WUM

[LeRouxIsPHat]

His man of the Match yesterday? Joe Worsley.

Professional WUM

I presume it was a close run thing between himself,Sheridan,Shaw,Hartley,Jason Leonard,Johnson,Dallaglio etc

[Comer Toes]

His man of the Match yesterday? Joe Worsley.

Professional WUM

Spotted that alright, hilarious. He even caveated Worsley's spanking by Brussow earlier in the piece by saying he's not an openside but then decides fcuk it I'll still give him my MOTM since he's going to be suggested as a dirt-tracker by everyone else in the aftermath.