Good to see Neil Francis back writing again. Great article from the big man in the Sunday Times today
No.
hes an idiot who panders to part time fans
And arseholes, don't forget about arseholes
Very good journalist. Good to see him back. Shame he isn’t on TV. RTÉ panel is atrocious
Glad to see him back,
Not sure what a “part time fan” is and how they would differ from a full time one. Do full time ones get a card or something?
Glad to have him back?
He was sacked after making racist remarks about a rugby player. Lot of people getting their cards marked for this.
Neil is an excellent journalist.
If your idea of excellent is a bad player in his day a modern racist and homophobe who consistently predicts the outcome of games incorrectly.
The Sunday paper was delivered the other day and i was surprised to see his mug on the top banner.
Didn’t he say something like Smith was more interested in his hair and tanning himself than playing rugby? I think he wasn’t aware of his heritage, maybe the surname should have given it away.
But all this was done to death at the time, those that wanted to be outraged were outraged, thankfully he is back in print.
Both part time and full time fans know forwards often slag backs for being pretty boys who lose the ball they work so hard to get.
A "part time" fan is those typical fans who only watch rugby at six nations time and get their opinions from reading the sindo.
This stuff isn't hard to understand.
They get paid, and are unavailable for Olympic selection
Its hard to understand why you think rugby fans who watch less matches than you are lesser fans, and less knowledgable. Help me understand, where is the threshold for crossing over to full time? A couple of provincial matches? Maybe a few autumn internationals. It is this type of small minded arrogance which the IRFU are trying to do away with, to be more inclusive and attract more fans. I have to say, the thing that bugs me most about going to internationals, I always seem to be sitting close to some shouting know all who thinks he knows better than everyone else, including the players and coaches. Would they be examples of full time fans I wonder?
He called him an oompla lompa i think.
He said he had a David Beckham haircut and an ooopa Loompa tan, personally I think a rugby player being compared to DB is a bigger insult.
I’m not sure if I fall into the part time or full time category of rugby fan (watch autumn internationals, attend as many 6 nations as I can get tickets, attend Thomand and Race track occasionally), but before the controversy I didn’t know MS’s heritage, and google images does show the lad likes a tan.
You think?
How come you don’t know for certain if you’re a full time rugby fan?
Likes a tan? Jesus you're as bad as Francis. He's half Filipino. It's his natural skin tone.
I think when your skin color is actually your skin color then referring to him as “liking a tan” is very much the thing franno had to apologize for.
Because i wouldn't pay the slightest bit of attention to anything franno says or writes.
Filipino’s can’t tan? Hmmm
Now I’m not a dermatologist, but that looks like a tan to me.
Again, I don’t think Franno was aware of his heritage, I suspect most fans didn’t until this story blew up.
Which of course is your right, don’t read it. Personally I don’t much care for some sports journalists and indeed tv commentators, but I just choose not to read/listen to them, It works for me.
how much is the new job paying neil?
Ah, the boards special, yes, I am Neil Francis.
D’oh.
I'm a saddo rugby anorak and haven't seen you here previously. Are you a nomadic culture warrior, roving boards to stave off the snowflake pox?
Oh I’ve been here before, I like most sports so I post in what interests me. Again, I’m not sure whether I fall into the part/full time category, I did post a lot around the time of the WC cause I went to Japan for a couple of weeks, and I did post on the earlier incarnation of this topic. I find the cancel culture very naff, in hindsight Franno should have known MS’s heritage before commenting, but I doubt all of us, even the know alls, knew he was half Filipino until this story blew up. Franno is a typical forward slagging a pretty back, happens all the time in every dressing room. His mistake is that back is of foreign descent and he got slaughtered for it. There was no outrage from the white English people who were offended by the reference to one of their own, David Beckham, for any self respecting rugby player, that should have been the bigger insult.
Who's franno?
WhosNeil?
Ignore button got a nice bit of exercise there.
Don't think I will bother reading him again, he clearly watched a different game to me. "JGP was excellent for 70 mins", I thought he was terrible in the first half, he made so many mistakes, to be fair he was a different player for the next 30 mins.
Franno goes on about Ireland were not going to score 2/3 tries in the last 10/15 mins with Murray on (took 70 mins to get 4) , in the game I watched, when Murray was on, Ireland gave away 4 penalties, knocked the ball on 3 times and also kicked the ball dead.
An Englishman named Smith. I think Franno thought he was another Gavin Henson and genuinely had no idea he was from a mixed-race background. Come on, it's not like he was riding around in a KKK robe with torches etc. The "racism" was almost non-existent. If Franno was black nobody would have said a word about it.
Almost non-existent but still existent
Gays have no nterest in professional sport.
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