Stephen Jones drives me mad

[CiaranIrl]

I know, I know, I should throw these articles in the bin along with Neil Francis' tripe, but I can't help it. I'm just drawn to read it, and then I go nuts. But this cr@p made me damn well annoyed.

Argh. What a ....

----------------------------------------------------------------

THE ROLLING MAUL

Stephen Jones debates the biggest issues in rugby union in his weekly e-mail

----------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, May 27, 2009. 1700 BST
----------------------------------------------------------------

The start of the Lions tour is upon us but with a lack of brilliant talent at their disposal I am very worried about Brian O'Driscoll. He was on the winning side in the Heineken Cup final and good luck to him. But anyone taking a sober or neutral view would have deduced that the spring and the pace in his legs were completely absent. If a visitor from Mars had arrived at Murrayfield, he would quickly have come to the conclusion that the great centres on the field were Danny Hipkiss and Ayoola Erinle of Leicester.

A few months ago, the Irish nation seemed to rise up as one at my insistence that O'Driscoll was by no means a certain selection for the Test matches on the Lions tour. I said that as part of our round table discussion on Lions selection, which attracted an incredible 650,000 hits on The Times website.

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.

Yet O'Driscoll is clearly influential. He scored killer tries at key stages of Ireland's victories over England and Wales last season. As an extra flanker with his strength and competitiveness over the ball, he was outstanding. Yet the Lions want him to be the old Brian, with the old pace and cutting edges out wide. It seems to me that he has lost a considerable amount of the old surge and gas. In some of his breakaway tries this season he has almost been overhauled when well clear and on Saturday even his hour of triumph was clouded as he ended the match limping unhappily on the wing. These days, few matches go by without him having to undergo protracted treatment.

Let us hope and pray that he has some brilliant matches left in the tank and that he is just fooling us. I can tell you now that he will hardly play for the Lions before the first Test in a bid to keep him fresh. Let us hope that he is rejuvenated.

The buzz around rugby at the moment is that the replacement Lions, who have come in for the players who have to miss the tour, are all improvements. There is one position in which the change is not beneficial. Tom Shanklin, the Welsh centre, was in the form of his life, and unless O'Driscoll can re-discover himself with the ball in hand, then the loss of Shanklin will be the cruellest blow.

There is no question in my mind, that a fit Shanklin would have played 13 in the Tests.

[jezzer]

I know, I know, I should throw these articles in the bin along with Neil Francis' tripe, but I can't help it. I'm just drawn to read it, and then I go nuts. But this cr@p made me damn well annoyed.

Argh. What a ....

----------------------------------------------------------------

THE ROLLING MAUL

Stephen Jones debates the biggest issues in rugby union in his weekly e-mail

----------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, May 27, 2009. 1700 BST
----------------------------------------------------------------

The start of the Lions tour is upon us but with a lack of brilliant talent at their disposal I am very worried about Brian O'Driscoll. He was on the winning side in the Heineken Cup final and good luck to him. But anyone taking a sober or neutral view would have deduced that the spring and the pace in his legs were completely absent. If a visitor from Mars had arrived at Murrayfield, he would quickly have come to the conclusion that the great centres on the field were Danny Hipkiss and Ayoola Erinle of Leicester.

A few months ago, the Irish nation seemed to rise up as one at my insistence that O'Driscoll was by no means a certain selection for the Test matches on the Lions tour. I said that as part of our round table discussion on Lions selection, which attracted an incredible 650,000 hits on The Times website.

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.

Yet O'Driscoll is clearly influential. He scored killer tries at key stages of Ireland's victories over England and Wales last season. As an extra flanker with his strength and competitiveness over the ball, he was outstanding. Yet the Lions want him to be the old Brian, with the old pace and cutting edges out wide. It seems to me that he has lost a considerable amount of the old surge and gas. In some of his breakaway tries this season he has almost been overhauled when well clear and on Saturday even his hour of triumph was clouded as he ended the match limping unhappily on the wing. These days, few matches go by without him having to undergo protracted treatment.

Let us hope and pray that he has some brilliant matches left in the tank and that he is just fooling us. I can tell you now that he will hardly play for the Lions before the first Test in a bid to keep him fresh. Let us hope that he is rejuvenated.

The buzz around rugby at the moment is that the replacement Lions, who have come in for the players who have to miss the tour, are all improvements. There is one position in which the change is not beneficial. Tom Shanklin, the Welsh centre, was in the form of his life, and unless O'Driscoll can re-discover himself with the ball in hand, then the loss of Shanklin will be the cruellest blow.

There is no question in my mind, that a fit Shanklin would have played 13 in the Tests.

It's his mind that's the problem, though.

[[Jackass]]

I hope everyone will join me from now on and just ignore these threads...not even post in them.

No offence Ciaran, but to acknowledge and read and debate them is what keeps these hacks in their journo positions. There's no one I despise more than Neill Francis, not even close, but Jones is a bit of an eejit, but I don't think we should post about this stuff anymore.

P.S. The irony of me responding in order to say that is not wasted on me.

[Bones]

He's one from the Hook mould. Look at me everyone, look at me, I'm being controversial.

[Darce]

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...

[CiaranIrl]

I hope everyone will join me from now on and just ignore these threads...not even post in them.

No offence Ciaran, but to acknowledge and read and debate them is what keeps these hacks in their journo positions. There's no one I despise more than Neill Francis, not even close, but Jones is a bit of an eejit, but I don't think we should post about this stuff anymore.

P.S. The irony of me responding in order to say that is not wasted on me.

No, fair enough. You're completely right.

[anonymous_joe]

Meh, he panders to a certain type of opinion.

If he was a football journalist he'd be complaining about England having black players let alone an Italian manager.

Seriously though, his anti-Irish diatribes (and anti-New Zealand) have gone way beyond anything approximating journalism.

[tackle-bag]

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...

Was this the one where he claimed that Leicester possessed all the flair in attack, dominated possession and were unlucky to lose the game!? The man is a f***ing plank of the highest order. He clearly never played the game, his writing style is utterly moronic and he looks like a sex offender. I don't know why the Times bother keeping him on board, no-one except a few Welsh zealots could possibly enjoy his bilge.

[anonymous_joe]

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...

Was this the one where he claimed that Leicester possessed all the flair in attack, dominated possession and were unlucky to lose the game!? The man is a f***ing plank of the highest order. He clearly never played the game, his writing style is utterly moronic and he looks like a sex offender. I don't know why the Times bother keeping him on board, no-one except a few Welsh zealots could possibly enjoy his bilge.

Don't think he's even that pro-Welsh.

[TheSqueeze]

Oh Dear God! He actually gets paid to write this utter sh!te. BOD is a genius. The best player Ireland has ever produced and how a c!7T like Stephen Jones can belittle his achievements is utterly laughable and quite frankly despicable..

[jhc99]

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.

[orfeo]

Just read the article, the anti irish stuff is great though , it is so far out there and obvious it destroys any credibility he might have in the UK not to mind here, I mean how could you go through all past tours listing the greats and the not so great and not mention Willie John ? He remembered the Captain Clanger jibe though ! 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 .

[jhc99]

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...

Was this the one where he claimed that Leicester possessed all the flair in attack, dominated possession and were unlucky to lose the game!? The man is a f***ing plank of the highest order. He clearly never played the game, his writing style is utterly moronic and he looks like a sex offender. I don't know why the Times bother keeping him on board, no-one except a few Welsh zealots could possibly enjoy his bilge.

Don't think he's even that pro-Welsh.

He isn't pro Welsh, he's pro English, because he's paid to be. If Lunsters are bad, this guy is a thousand times worse..... he's turncoat scum because he's paid to be. By the way, if you've ever wondered why he's so pro the GP have a look at the Guinness Premiership site and you'll find (shock horror) that the Times and Sunday Times are 'partners' of 'the best league in the world (http://www.guinnesspremiership.com/196_239.php). Ever wondered why he's so pro-England - well the Times are actually sponsors of England rugby (http://www.rfu.com/index.cfm/fuseaction ... ctionId/39). Basically, in every article, Jones has been told by his editor "Don't forget to tell everyone how the GP is the greatest league in the world and that only English players should be on the Lions. There so cr@p they need all the help they can get."

Jones is simply a mouthpiece for the RFU and Guinness Premiership and thus has absolutely has as much journalistic credibility as Joseph Goebbles (is that a little extreme... perhaps).

[cully86]

Stephen says

"Cipriani is the greatest talent England rugby has produced since the Second World War, Jeremy Guscott, perhaps, excepted"

[orfeo]

Joseph (is that a little extreme ...perhaps)

Bit harsh on Goebbles

[jhc99]

Joseph (is that a little extreme ...perhaps)

Bit harsh on Goebbles

[neiliog93]

He's such a sh!t journalist that he deliberately creates controversial headlines to sustain his career.

He doesn't have the necessary brainpower, sporting knowledge/experience or writing ability to keep a job based on pure journalistic skills - he needs bullshit controversy like this.


Ignore the talentless, bigoted (anyone noticed his anti-Irish sentiment over the last few years? Admittedly it's particularly anti-Munster, but there's definitely sinister bigoted feeling towards are country wrapped up there), washed up b$&%@#d from now on.

[claire_m]

I don't ever bother read him. I would lose minutes of my life that I would just never get back if I read him, so I just don't bother.

My advice: don't waste your time!

[downsouthdukin]

[/quote]
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.

[downsouthdukin]

He's such a sh!t journalist that he deliberately creates controversial headlines to sustain his career.

He doesn't have the necessary brainpower, sporting knowledge/experience or writing ability to keep a job based on pure journalistic skills - he needs bullshit controversy like this.


Ignore the talentless, bigoted (anyone noticed his anti-Irish sentiment over the last few years? Admittedly it's particularly anti-Munster, but there's definitely sinister bigoted feeling towards are country wrapped up there), washed up b$&%@#d from now on.

i think his anti-irish sentiment started when sir clive took a shine to the black stuff and jones had to share his bowls with gorrilla fingers