Eddie Jones

[moto748]

Jason Robinson was just a run of the mill rugby player until he learned his skills playing rugby union.
All according to Rugby union media of course.
This makes me dislike rugby union as a sport due to the lies they bring up in media, it is so false.

Absolutely. See also, in the recent publicity about Billy Boston, him being described as a "Cardiff boy at heart", with the clear sub-text that this innocent Welsh lad had his head turned by those scheming Northerners. Didn't rush back to Cardiff, though, did he?

[thegimble]

Jason Robinson was just a run of the mill rugby player until he learned his skills playing rugby union.
All according to Rugby union media of course.
This makes me dislike rugby union as a sport due to the lies they bring up in media, it is so false.

Absolutely. See also, in the recent publicity about Billy Boston, him being described as a "Cardiff boy at heart", with the clear sub-text that this innocent Welsh lad had his head turned by those scheming Northerners. Didn't rush back to Cardiff, though, did he?

As a Welsh man I can guarantee you that hardly anyone in Wales knows who Billy Boston is and his importance to the game of RL. Unless they are a RL fan.

I did not know who he was until I came to central park to watch Wigan in 1995/1996.

Billy Boston is a Wigan and RL legend just happens to be Welsh.

[ian b]

Eddie Jones is an arrogant dick. He slates league one week and then employs Andrew Johns the week after to work with the England squad saying he is possibly the best player he's seen. The man is a fool

[DaveO]

Jason Robinson was just a run of the mill rugby player until he learned his skills playing rugby union.
All according to Rugby union media of course.
This makes me dislike rugby union as a sport due to the lies they bring up in media, it is so false.

Absolutely. See also, in the recent publicity about Billy Boston, him being described as a "Cardiff boy at heart", with the clear sub-text that this innocent Welsh lad had his head turned by those scheming Northerners. Didn't rush back to Cardiff, though, did he?

I saw that and while you are right they did make much of the cash on the table they also (IMO) put the blame for his "defection" fairly and squarely on Cardiff and RU by the fact they repeatedly overlooked him.

Which I thought was interesting because you always associate such behaviour with English RU with Welsh RU more working class based. But then I also remember the nasty treatment they give to more recent converts such as Devereux who played for Widnes.

One of the things that makes me proud to be an RL & Wigan supporter is how progressive the sport & club has been over the years. Hanley, black pearl and captain of his club & GB. Boston himself. And (for Wigan) the other extreme in Ray Mordt and Nick Du Toit, South Africans who played at a time before Mr Mandela took over! If you can play, RL takes you on never mind race or whatever. Always thought RL was far ahead of other sports especially RU in this regard.

[morley pie eater]

You're right Dave O. It may have been necessity/survival that drove RL to take anybody regardless of race, colour or creed but what a massive influence on us. Growing up in Hindley in the 1950s, I never saw anyone black other than pitmen coming home from their shift a Plank Lane pit.

But, with 'King' Billy Boston as my hero, how could I consider black people as inferior or objects of ridicule?

Rugby League has a proud history, and the fact that the RFU and WRU still haven't acknowledged their past sins shows how far behind they are.

Incidentally, black players in RL go back at least to Colin Dixon. Swindon had one or two in the 50s/early 60s too - was it John Speed or Bobby Fleet? Can anyone tell us the first black player? I'm sure it would be long before football.

[morley pie eater]

Found this re Cec Thompson: " he became the first black player to be picked for Great Britain. The Cumberbatch brothers, Jimmy of Broughton Rangers and Val of Barrow, had played for England in the 1930s, but Thompson was the trailblazer for GB when he played two Tests against the touring New Zealanders, both of which ended in British victories."