A whiff of Cordite

[Peg Leg]

Yeah, personal opinion is so overrated on a forum.

[paddyor]

Yeah, personal opinion is so overrated on a forum.

Shut up!

Get with da rulz!

[Dave Cahill]

I presume that all the people objecting to Bundee Aki et al being selected for Ireland find Ian McKinley's selection for the Italian team equally objectionable?

[simonokeeffe]

I saw one dolt replying to the teamsheet that names province and club asking how many times Aki has played for Galwegians?

Probably the same amount most of the team have played for their clubs

[Dave Cahill]

I saw one dolt replying to the teamsheet that names province and club asking how many times Aki has played for Galwegians?

Probably the same amount most of the team have played for their clubs

I think that was the point.




Though the guy in question is somewhat doltish at the best of times.

[simonokeeffe]

I saw one dolt replying to the teamsheet that names province and club asking how many times Aki has played for Galwegians?

Probably the same amount most of the team have played for their clubs

I think that was the point.




Though the guy in question is somewhat doltish at the best of times.

But why pick Aki out of any of them? Doubt RK has ever played a club game

[Dave Cahill]

I saw one dolt replying to the teamsheet that names province and club asking how many times Aki has played for Galwegians?

Probably the same amount most of the team have played for their clubs

I think that was the point.




Though the guy in question is somewhat doltish at the best of times.

But why pick Aki out of any of them? Doubt RK has ever played a club game

You'd be wrong

[simonokeeffe]

Forest: trees

[Oldschool]

I presume that all the people objecting to Bundee Aki et al being selected for Ireland find Ian McKinley's selection for the Italian team equally objectionable?

http://forum.leinsterfans.com/viewtopic ... 4&start=60
Far away hills are Green.
The Written Word Is Forever.

[fourthirtythree]

I think that was the point.


Though the guy in question is somewhat doltish at the best of times.

But why pick Aki out of any of them? Doubt RK has ever played a club game

You'd be wrong

My memory of that is that it was 10 years ago so he was still 21, but it was still considered semi scandalous and nigh on cheating to have him playing. Return from injury was the reason given but other clubs complained that it was as they had a push on to win...

It's a while anyway.

[Dave Cahill]

The match I saw him play was against Belfast Quins who had a young fella in the centre who was the then current next Brian O'Driscoll, which is why I went. He wasn't bad though that Cave lad. I was more impressed with the young Fergus McFadden though.

[suisse]

The Guardian article by Paul Rees (obligatory stab at SOB) has a comments section that is pure car crash nonsense. There's one 47 comment thread which is essentially a back and forward argument between Ireland and NZ fans. Brutal sh!t. Just awful. All centres on Bundee Aki. I hate using the racism card, but I find it hard tl believe there would be the same outrage if Ben Smith was playing for Ireland.

[molloyjh]

The Guardian article by Paul Rees (obligatory stab at SOB) has a comments section that is pure car crash nonsense. There's one 47 comment thread which is essentially a back and forward argument between Ireland and NZ fans. Brutal sh!t. Just awful. All centres on Bundee Aki. I hate using the racism card, but I find it hard tl believe there would be the same outrage if Ben Smith was playing for Ireland.

I'd say if Ben Smith had been on record saying he wasn't sure what country he was going to play for and then got selected at the same time that a fan favourite got dropped he'd certainly have issues. Look at the reaction to Bent a few years back. I really don't think this is driven by skin colour at all. There are just certain individuals who, for a variety of reasons, are unfortunate enough to be the ones caught in the spotlight at a particular time.

[simonokeeffe]

the one defence you could make for Aki is the more he says he wants to play for Ireland the more that hurts him at contract negotiation time

I do also think in the criticism there's a lot of forgetting by accident or design that he is in there as Ringrose is injured.

Ewan McKenna himself has just had a go at me on twitter

[fourthirtythree]

The singling out of Aki compared to Strauss, Stander etc. kind of stinks. Make your own mind up of what, it it stinks.

[neiliog93]

The singling out of Aki compared to Strauss, Stander etc. kind of stinks. Make your own mind up of what, it it stinks.

I don't buy this. Firstly, there's always been a hardcore of anti-project player critics who've given out about the likes of Strauss, Payne etc qualifying to play for Ireland (Franno etc). So them opposing Aki qualifying won't (in most cases) have anything to do with racial prejducie. I can certainly admit that there has been more general outcry over Aki playing for Ireland than other project players, but I think it primarily comes down to 2 things:

a) Many people can accept a certain number of project players, but there is eventually a tipping point where as the number of project players increases, this (to some) undermines the credibility of the 'national' team.

b) Aki really didn't help himself with his comments a year ago about not being Irish and it being wrong for him to represent Ireland; conversely the likes of Stander never anything like that publicly.

Rodney Ah You is also ethnically Polynesian and there was much less outcry when he played for Ireland, again because he had made no public comments about not being/feeling Irish then, and also because we had fewer project players in the team at the time. And yet he's non-white too. I don't agree with the racism angle being pushed here.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Ewan McKenna himself has just had a go at me on twitter

This makes me far angrier than it should and I haven't even seen it

I'll say this for him, he's very good at what he does. The only way to stop him from gaining publicity is to stop giving him oxygen but he winds people up so much that they get taken in by his nonsense and his star continues to rise. As I said in another thread, it's different to Kimmage because even though I disagree with him on the vast majority of what he says, I don't doubt that his concerns come from a good place, whereas this guy is just on the WUM. And doing that these days can be genuinely dangerous, the influence these kind of shysters had on Brexit and Trump's election should be a warning to all. Feed people emotive sh!t like this and it will cause division, it's toxic.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

b) Aki really didn't help himself with his comments a year ago about not being Irish and it being wrong for him to represent Ireland; conversely the likes of Stander never anything like that publicly.

I've a bit of an issue with this point. I didn't like the comments and I doubt that anyone on here was a fan of them either, but I struggle to believe that the majority of people who are against him playing tomorrow are actually aware of them. They just weren't that big a deal at the time, in fact I don't particularly remember the specific comments you're referring to, but am thinking of the ones he said around the time that he signed, and I was only aware of them because I was researching something a couple of years back, it wasn't like they were headline news.

[riocard911]

b) Aki really didn't help himself with his comments a year ago about not being Irish and it being wrong for him to represent Ireland; conversely the likes of Stander never anything like that publicly.

I've a bit of an issue with this point. I didn't like the comments and I doubt that anyone on here was a fan of them either, but I struggle to believe that the majority of people who are against him playing tomorrow are actually aware of them. They just weren't that big a deal at the time, in fact I don't particularly remember the specific comments you're referring to, but am thinking of the ones he said around the time that he signed, and I was only aware of them because I was researching something a couple of years back, it wasn't like they were headline news.

My recollection was that it was a very big deal. He was the stand out centre in the country at the time, one of the rocks on which Connacht Cinderella narrative was based and a shoe-in for a place in the Ireland squad when he qualified and suddenly he announces he's considering his options and suggests he could don some other nations jersey, where he to get a better offer. Irish rugby fans were put out - understandably so. The continuing hooha is all down to that, IMO. The racism aspect is at best marginal. He's signed on to the good ship Éire now, so I wish him all the very best in the green jersey!!!

[Dave Cahill]

Ewan McKenna himself has just had a go at me on twitter

B-Lister.

I was corrected by Augustin Pichot himself last night