General Rugby Discussion 3

Nearly had a heart attack and thought we were in a pool with Exeter and la Rochelle somehow when I tuned in.

Neil Francis could be in a lot of trouble now. He was on Luke Fitzgerald's podcast and referred to mixed race player Marcus Smith as having an "Oompa Loompa tan." They've since edited that audio out of the podcast by the original is floating around on twitter.

Francis has has a history of making borderline racist and homophobic remarks in his columns. This one might finally finish him.

I would say he almost certainly wasn’t aware, that in itself is the height of stupidity when working in broadcasting. Regardless of his lack of knowledge mocking someone for the colour of their skin is what he’s done here.

But where will I get my uninformed comments on the haka, pacific island poaching and AB brutality…?

#ripfrancisindo

This was coming for some time. He has a very recent history of constant xenophobic remarks, which he’s been rapped for. Yet he’s kept on digging. I’m surprised he lasted this long. I don’t think there’s a place for someone that uncooth in today’s society, even without the cancel culture

I mean, I don't think he was trying to be intentionally racist. I'd guarantee he didn't know Smith was half filipino. He was playing on the 'softie backs' trope which is tired and boring.

He was playing on the 'softie backs' trope which is tired and boring. I'd guarantee he didn't know Smith was half filipino.

Something that's pointless is calling someone racist when they clearly weren't in that particular instance. It's like those lads on Twitter that call any criticism of Israel anti-semitism - the weaponisation of antisemitism weakens genuine antisemitism. Nail him for actual racist and homophobic comments he's made, not bad faith takes on unfunny gags.

Couldn't happen to a nicer fella, from the times listening to him on the last word the smugness was dripping of him.

Funny how everyone completely ignored his full comment,

he said

”A HARLEQUINS OUT-HALF, with a David beckham haircut and an Oompa Loompa tan, YOU JUST COULDN’T THROW HIM IN.”

he basically wrote him off because he played for Harlequins, but I’d bet money he actually doesn’t know that they won the league this season.

The rest of it was just a pure ignorant comment, he probably never saw him play, and he obviously thought it was a fake or sunbed tan, à la Gavin Henson or Donncha O’Callaghan.

He said in his apology it was interpreted differently to what he meant, which was about “How backs turn themselves out”, I believe it was just a dumb ignorant comment, rather than a racist comment,

but if he doesn’t know Marcus Smith’s RUGBY background, that he is a highly rated precocious talent that achieved a lot of success with England underage, and has had involvements with the senior English squads since he broke through to play Senior for Harlequins at only 18, (22 now) and that he was the out-half that guided Harlequins to a league win as the underdogs, (I think he stood out in the semi-final miracle comeback as well), and played outstandingly well for England only a few weeks ago, he has no business commenting on rugby as a paid rugby “analyst”.

even his apology is stupid, he should have said clearly that he didn’t realise he was half Filipino and thought it was fake and left it at that.

FWIW, his haircut is ridiculous, it must be a hindrance having hair flopping around your field of vision, particularly at out-half where you need to see everything and can’t afford to make handling errors too often.