General Rugby Discussion 3

Ian Botham played international cricket for England and his grandson James Botham played international rugby for Wales.

Ben Cohen played international rugby for England. His uncle George won the 1966 football World Cup for England.

Still can't think of two brothers though.

Not quite the same but similar to Shane O Leary above Jack Cartys brother Luke has played for the USA national team also

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

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

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.

Too late for us to sue somebody ?

Bugger

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.

disgusting attitude to have

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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