Mitch starc aussie cricketer, his brother is an olympic high/long jumper I think
His wife Alyssa is the women's captain, her uncle was Ian healy, former men's test cricketer
Getting completely away from rugby, Zacharie was a professional soccer player, his son Yannick Noah a professional tennis player and his son, Joakim Noah a professional basketballer. No pressure on Joakim's kids!
Ah well if we’re getting away from rugby, both my sisters represented Ireland in horse riding and I represented Ireland in fishing, does that count? lol
😁 Definitely
From the Irish Times :
Damages awarded to former pupil over alleged rugby tour ‘hazing’, including shaving head and stripping naked
Gabriel McConkey (19) sued a Northern Ireland grammar school’s governors for negligence and failure to supervise squad.
A former pupil at one of Northern Ireland’s top grammar schools allegedly forced to strip naked and have his head shaved as part of “hazing” initiations on an overseas rugby tour is to receive more than £50,000 in damages, the Belfast High Court heard on Wednesday.The settlement was announced in Gabriel McConkey’s action over claims he also witnessed other boys from Methodist College Belfast perform acts on a sex toy at their base in Portugal.
Mr McConkey (19) sued the school’s governors for alleged negligence and failure to properly supervise the senior rugby squad on the trip in December 2022. In court on Wednesday it was announced that he is to be paid £52,760 plus legal costs.
Mr McConkey’s family and solicitor declared the outcome a vindication in taking the case. His mother, Sian Mawhinney, said: “The child that we sent on a school trip is not the child that returned home to us, either physically or mentally. He looked absolutely broken by what happened and what he witnessed.”
Mr McConkey, from the Carryduff on the outskirts of Belfast, was aged 17 and in lower sixth form at Methody when selected to travel to a sports resort on the Algarve for warm-weather training. He alleged that older pupils subjected him and some of the other younger members of the squad to a series of so-called hazing incidents.
According to the statement of claim he was coerced into having his head shaved as part of humiliating rituals. Mr McConkey was also forced to strip off, run along a stretch of path and jump into a swimming pool in a “naked mile” ritual, it was alleged. His lawyers contended that a further incident involved being made to witness other pupils perform acts on a sex toy while wearing women’s underwear.
Proceedings were issued against the school’s board of governors for alleged failures to prevent the hazing episodes and to properly supervise pupils on the rugby tour. The action was listed for a three-day trial but Mr Justice Fowler was informed that a settlement had been reached on the terms disclosed.
Mr McConkey, who is now studying sports coaching at Gloucestershire University, attended court with his family for the outcome. His mother recalled him being “in a state of trauma” following the trip. “As a result of all this Gabriel left school rugby because of the environment.”
The family’s solicitor, Victoria Haddock of Phoenix Law, said: “Our client suffered distressing personal injury arising out of degrading, abusive incidents perpetrated on him during a Methodist College school trip. This occurred at a critical stage of his formative life, in the middle of his gateway exams.”
Ms Haddock added: “He is content that the matter resolved today, and has been vindicated with settlement in his favour of £52,760.”
Down with this sort of thing.
The naked part is a bit strange and the sex toy part is very very strange but the head shaving is normal enough. We all did this for JCT and SCT over 15 years ago, you didn't really have a choice. Don't know about 50k when similar has been done since teams of all sports went on tours.
Too late for us to sue somebody ?
Bugger
whether the head shaving part is normal or not its a problem too
Yeah, this stuff is dumb and often dangerous with no upside other than older lads getting to lord it over younger lads in ways they experienced themselves. It's an offshoot of fragging in brit boarding schools and is rare enough in Irish schools in any kid of institutionalised form. It' definitely not normal.
He must be a right little snowflake. Head shaving, nudie runs and silly crap with sex toys sounds harmless.
If any of it was filmed and shared or posted online, different story.
disgusting attitude to have
Meh, usually a bit of craic and can help with team building etc. Looks like a few things got taken too far in this example but don’t really see any issue with head shaving and the like, doesn’t harm anyone.
Team building has zero to do with older lads shaving the younger lads in any group.
I really can't see how anyone can attempt to condone it.
I’m not sure if you’re serious. Are you?
At least part of the incidents as described were placed online and thus had a more widespread and profound effect that such as may have been the case in the past.
Of course, the public nature of the legal case has placed the plaintiff before a much larger audience.
Fragging is the deliberate or attempted killing of a soldier, usually a superior, by a fellow soldier.
Fagging is probably what you meant.
You can tell the posters who held some terrified first year’s head in a toilet, flushed it and then called him a fag for crying about it.
Also worth noting the lack of apology or acknowledgment of any kind from the school and the utterly spineless response from Ulster Rugby, so basically this is all regarded as grand and a bit of banter.
More like a bunch of lads were acting like ****, and taking pleasure in someone else's misery. **** them
Apologies, I didn’t read the article properly first time around and thought they all just shaved their heads as part of a pact kind of thing. The fact the older kids forced the younger one to completely changes things.
Unless the last word is😉 relevant of course….
From what I read in the article I really don't see what the big deal is. That sort of stuff happened in loads of teams I played in and coached over the years. In 4 different sports. It was all seen as a bit of fun. Kind of like kangaroo court sessions.
Another poster mentioned that some of it ended up online. Now that changes things and makes a law suit and compensation perfectly valid. But I think whoever shared it should be the one paying.
the attitude of 'that happened in my day so its fine' is ridiculous and one that is hopefully on the way out
i also feel very sorry for any of the young people you say you have coached where things like this have happened and you thought it was fine. i'll say it again, thats a disgusting attitude to have
Forcing a kid (a 17 year old, btw) to run around a holiday resort naked, then threatening to post a video of it online unless he shaves his head. This is OK, really?
That is absolutely unacceptable and anyone who thinks otherwise only thinks so because they themselves abused and bullied weaker kids in exactly the same way and thought it was all a bit of bantz.
If I had a child in that situation, you can be damn sure I'd be looking for heads to roll too.
Absolute scumbags, and I'll repeat that it is shameful that Ulster Rugby have not taken any stance here. Did they learn nothing in 2018? Apparently not.
I've kept in touch with a lot of them over the last 20 plus years and they all look back on those teams fondly. And we've all had a few laughs reminiscing about some of the things that happened. So I don't think you need to feel sorry for them. They'd probably tell you where you could stick your pity if you did say anything to them.
Can you tell me what it was that you found so objectionable? Was it the head shaving? Was it the streaking? Or was it the playing with sex toys?
it was the fact that they were co-erced (forced tbh) into doing it
look pretty much everyone else thinks its unacceptable so that should say enough on this one
But I have a gay friend!
Huh?
In the teams I was involved in, it was known that every the rookies would get a bit of hazing at their first away tournament. Everyone new it would happen including the parents (in the school teams) and everyone was fine with it. It was viewed as a rite of passage.
Just because a few people here disagree with it doesn't mean their opinions are "right". Just like my lived experience doesn't mean I'm "right". I simply don't see how what happened is worth 50k in compensation. I'm blown away by that. And so are my mates when I spoke to them about it.
this 'oh it is/was a rite of passage' argument is the biggest load of bollix i've ever heard. id say alot of the kids werent actually okay with it but just went along with it
i really hope youre not involved with coaching kids anymore to be honest, or anyone for that matter
Kids have died from this type of sh*t in the US and in the UK. You can see why when adults defend it.
