Lazy J wrote:NO
This is in danger of becoming a witch hunt, yes his behaviour was unacceptable, and hopefully he is rightly embarrassed, but action has been taken, he has been suspended and fined, move on. The real problem here is trial by media, if there wasn’t a video of it, it would have blown over by now.
Alcohol is a problem, but there are other issues, how was he allowed to get so drunk on licensed premises? The landlord and staff have a legal responsibility to stop serving him if he is visibly inebriated, this may have been what started the incident, I don’t know, does anyone? All we have seen are the 2 videos that are the result, we don’t know what lead up to that point or the context. I’m not blaming the staff by the way, just trying to look at the different angles on this.
I did a quick Google search on drunk rugby players, and found this incident at Bath a month ago
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/rugby-un ... g-10346165
Basically 11 players on a “wind down” session organised by the club got drunk, streaked round the ground and hurled insults at George Ford, problem is he was hosting an event (a kicking clinic) for children whose parents had paid for them to attend.
It wasn’t videoed, so it never made anything other than a story in the mirror, No one got sacked, that happened on club premises, at a club event.
We can’t compare to other codes, but there are precedents look at Dec or Ant whichever one isn’t on TV at the moment, he was bladdered and drove, crashed his car, into an innocent passer-by, to me drink driving is infinitely worse than what Tomkins did, I didn’t see Matthew Right hosting a debate on whether he should be allowed on TV again. He admitted a problem, and will be a national treasure again this time next year.
People make mistakes, people get punished that’s the cycle, Tomkins isn’t a role model, he’s a rugby player (or not if you look at some people’s opinions) my son loves the rugby, but we’ve explained to him what Joel did and why it was bad, that’s my job as a parent, my son gets his moral standards from me, not the 13 players on a rugby field, he idolises them as young fans do, but it’s served a positive, my son is now anti-alcohol as he can see the effects it has on people, he’s only 11 so that may change, but that’s what need to monitor as a parent.
As someone else mentioned, this can very quickly become another Terry Newton, player ostracised for making a mistake, loses his lively hood and can’t support his family, we know how that ended.
This is a convenient way for some fans to try and get a player who is underperforming at the moment out so we can bring someone new in.