Neil Francis

Jaysus.

Fitzgerald's useless punditry should take him out of the game ordinarily, but as the old saying goes, 'a podcast never refuses bullshyt'.

I would know Neil well, the Mrs is asian and knows him also.

We both think he is not a racist.

Too many people at home during the virus with nothing else to do.

Going by one of Luke's tweets he seems to think some sports people are there for his "enjoyment"

What is this supposed to mean?!

Heres my opinion.

Based on the podcast its not a racist comment, its a comment born out of ignorance , lack of knowledge of his subject matter and his lack of research.

I believe that he simply didnt know that Smith was Filipino and he thought that he was another flash outhalf who loved the tanning bed.

Im not defending him, I think hes a fool who thinks hes edgy in his thoughts.

I cant for the life of me understand why hes employed as a pundit on the last word or the Indo, his knowledge of the game outside of Leinster is appalling, he doesnt even know players names half the time and im pretty sure he was in the LW giving his opinion on Connacht and admitted that he hadnt seen them play yet (half way through the season)

He should have been sacked for not knowing his subject matter and not bothering to even do some basic and I mean basic research.

His comments in the past on Irelands project players left a lot to be desired and his opinion on Gays in pro sport were cavemanlike.

Whoever booked NF on the podcast knew this and knew what they were getting and they too should face sanctions for their lazy attitude towards standards. (im aware of the irony of expecting standards from the Indo)

Hes no loss to journalism or to media in general, I never respected his opinion and his lack of work ethic was never called out.

I didn’t know Filipinos were people of colour , every day is a learning day .

what about the Spanish?

every line of text he’s ever written is to stir ****

Looks like a bit of a setup to me, would be shocked if he knew about Smith's heritage or indeed commented based on that.

a setup? all he had to do was not make comments on peoples look and concentrate on discussing sport.

I’ve been in the company of Frano in a handful of occassions

a pure unadulterated gent.

Not a racist or mean bone in his body. I enjoy his punditry. He tells it like it is. I’d take him over lukey fitz any day.

I hope this all blows over and Frano stays on.

I suspect ignore lists are getting a f*cking hammering today.

There was no need to bring up his skin tone

in doing so he was either an idiot who hadn’t bothered to do his research

or

knowingly made a remark slagging a mans skin colour, which is borderline racist and thought he’d get away with it.

neither are good! And with priors he has, and with what the indo rugby section had published previously in relation to project players the second option is far more likely

It really not a complex situation. I am struggling to grasp why you are finding it so difficult to understand.

He slagged some for their skin colour. A person is born with their skin colour and it is not feature you can easily alter(and you shouldn't have to alter it to avoid getting slagged). The fact Francis seems to think there is something wrong with Smith's natural born skin colour is racist. He is basically saying there is something wrong hon because of something he was born with.

Francis should have been sacked along time ago for incompetence. How he lasted this long is only because the Indo are themselves fairly incompetent.

Clearly two faced, then.

Why would anyone get in trouble for that ?

First of all woke is made up silly word used by idiots to discredit others

secondly it is impossible to be racist in the western world to pale skinned people , I say western world because it is possible to be racist to pale skinned people in the east