Comment with Tim Cocker
Why rugby players still enjoy social media freedom
Christian Scotland-Williamson, currently a Pittsburgh Steeler, was spotted by NFL scouts because of a viral video of a bone-rattling rugby tackle. Mobile technologies and social media are transforming rugby, and we’re only scratching the surface. Other sports, like NFL, are a glimpse of what’s to come. Be sure though, there’s always a ‘Yin to the Yang’. Unintended consequences, lurking out of sight, are sure to come into sharp focus down the road.
Mine is a love-hate relationship with social media. I love that you can share ideas and opinions. I hate the toxicity conversations can descend to. I can reach huge numbers of people instantly, but can waste hours consumed by the thoughts of strangers. I can peek into the lives of the rugby players at the top of the sport. Players whose contracts, endorsements and careers can be ended with one ill-advised post.
Right now, through social media, we get a true sense of rugby players’ interests, lifestyles, values, thoughts and flaws. Even in my role interviewing players on TV, very little encouragement is required for players to crack jokes at their own and team-mates’ expense. We see inside dressing rooms as teams celebrate victories. Coaches join broadcasters in club bars after games, among fans and with a beer in hand. Despite the vast difference in athleticism, we see that the essence of playing rugby, life in a clubhouse and being part of a team is universal.
Cast your eye over the protective bubble placed around the world’s biggest sports stars. Look at their polished, agency-produced social media content. Witness the platitudes given to the media. Why? Are these athletes less entertaining or interesting than rugby players? No. They simply make enough money that the risks become too great. They’re under such levels of scrutiny that every word they say or write is potentially misconstrued. Why take the risk?
Soon after returning from England’s World Cup efforts in Japan, prop Ellis Genge was broadly praised for his openness and honesty when, as a guest on a House of Rugby podcast, he said, on the subject of loyalty between players and clubs: ‘Fuck off. It’s a work environment. I’m sure if you work at Tesco and want to leave to go to Asda your manager ain’t saying ‘fuck off, you can’t do that!’...It’s a business...It’s bollocks...But you can’t expect an arm and a leg from a player and give them fuck all when they retire’. Imagine the media outcry had the same quote come from one of England’s football squad. The ‘industrial’ language alone would’ve burst several of Piers Morgan’s blood vessels on Good Morning Britain and been tabloid fodder. Next, the Twitter mob ‘pile on’, pressuring companies with commercial deals with the player to sever ties. This isn’t a dystopian future I’m painting. This is happening now, just not largely in rugby...yet!
With this in mind I’m currently full of admiration for the social media stance taken by Courtney Lawes. After the 2019 General Election Courtney Lawes did the unthinkable on Twitter. He admitted that he’d voted for the Conservative Party. The reaction was predictably negative towards him since Twitter isn’t representative of popular opinion or ‘real life’. Lawes regularly chimes in on high profile stories and sensitive issues, like racism. More power to him! It’s authentic and thought provoking. When the ‘woke’ critics realised he couldn’t be silenced and wouldn’t apologise, they began to leave him. For a man associated with folding French fly-half Jules Plisson like a deck-chair maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised by his heroism and fortitude off the field too. Undoubtedly, there will come a point, if we haven’t crossed the Rubicon already, where rugby players will be counselled to avoid sharing such opinions (unless they’re opinions the alternate reality of social media approves of, of course).
Social media and handheld digital technology has prompted such a shift in our lives that the impact is simply not understood. Research points to significant negative effects on self-esteem though, among other outcomes. Even a seasoned professional player in Freddie Burns spoke of the harm it can do: ‘I’ve had lots of aggressive tweets in the past, it’s all just part and parcel these days. But this wasn’t just a one off... It felt like character assassination on both a personal and a professional level. I wasn’t playing much at the time so it was like someone was taking a shot at me while I was down’. For some individuals, the costs of social media won’t exceed the benefits. That will be a decision for every parent or individual.
Within rugby environments themselves I have anecdotal accounts from older and recently retired players that they would lose respect for younger squad members whose noses were perpetually in their screens. With social media and digital technology, we can place ourselves at the centre of our own universe. Every thought, however inane, can be shared instantly. Could this wear away at the ‘team-first’, collective traditions of rugby union? Perhaps it already has.
The risks may be especially high for youngsters aspiring to play at elite levels. In American Football it’s routine for College recruiters to scour athletes’ social media posts for possible issues. Scholarships have been withdrawn for the use of profanity alone. There are now agencies who, for a fee of course, offer to ‘recruitment proof’ an athlete’s digital footprint.
From where I stand, the greatest asset to rugby union is the culture of the sport. You can turn up at any clubhouse at any level, anywhere, and be made to feel welcome. There’s more fraternity within clubs, between clubs and between fans and players than in any sport I’ve ever witnessed.
Rugby union has played catch-up on many issues that professionalism has thrown our way. Often with little success. This is one area where proactive work can be done, at all levels. I hope those remedies put front and centre the preservation of the personality, opinion and character which rugby players are able to share. What can we do to make sure it’s always OK for a director of rugby to walk into the bar, among fans of both sides, for a post-match interview, with a beer if they wish to, and for me never to receive a response of ‘at the end of the day, we gave it 110 per cent’?
This extract was taken from issue 9 of Rugby.
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