RugbyRebels

England rugby star Billy Vunipola ‘tasered’ during Spanish bar arrest
Eight officers apprehend Saracens forward after he threatened staff and customers with bottles and chairs, according to local reports

Mellsblue wrote: ↑Tue Apr 30, 2024 9:06 am If I spent two years off the booze and then went on a weekend away with my rugby team I’d probably end up being tasered as well.
A nothing story for me with the only issue being if Sarries feel he’s been a dick on their time.
Would’ve loved to have seen the look on the police man/woman’s face when he/she entered the bar only see that behemoth.

Mikey Brown wrote: ↑Tue Apr 30, 2024 9:34 am Yeah he's always seemed like a tosser, or at least a moron.

TheDasher wrote: ↑Tue Apr 30, 2024 9:13 am

Mellsblue wrote: ↑Tue Apr 30, 2024 9:06 am If I spent two years off the booze and then went on a weekend away with my rugby team I’d probably end up being tasered as well.
A nothing story for me with the only issue being if Sarries feel he’s been a dick on their time.
Would’ve loved to have seen the look on the police man/woman’s face when he/she entered the bar only see that behemoth.

Yep but you're not a professional athlete (sorry if you are) and you're not paid to be one, and you're not 20 stone and intimidating (sorry if you are) and you haven't come across as being a bit of a brat in the past (sorry if you have).

Not the end of the world I know.

Oakboy wrote: ↑Tue Apr 30, 2024 10:08 am

Mikey Brown wrote: ↑Tue Apr 30, 2024 9:34 am Yeah he's always seemed like a tosser, or at least a moron.

He's definitely no loss to the English game.

TheDasher wrote: ↑Tue Apr 30, 2024 8:51 am I feel like an old man with what I'm about to write - I mean a young sports star gets drunk and goes mad in a bar, it's not like it hasn't happened before, nobody died etc.

BUT - I don't like Vunipola, having just read his apology, he's essentially saying "there was no fighting, I've paid my fine, said sorry and that's it" - he just comes across as incredibly arrogant. What about the people who own the bar, the mess, the police officers having do deal with him etc, if you watch the video it's pretty disgraceful. He has been difficult with management before, his performances on the pitch for England over the past few years have been lazy and disinterested and frankly he seems like he needs someone to tell him to wind his neck in.

But as I said, I appreciate I sound like an old man and worse things happen at sea and all that.

Puja wrote: ↑Tue Apr 30, 2024 1:05 pm

TheDasher wrote: ↑Tue Apr 30, 2024 8:51 am I feel like an old man with what I'm about to write - I mean a young sports star gets drunk and goes mad in a bar, it's not like it hasn't happened before, nobody died etc.

BUT - I don't like Vunipola, having just read his apology, he's essentially saying "there was no fighting, I've paid my fine, said sorry and that's it" - he just comes across as incredibly arrogant. What about the people who own the bar, the mess, the police officers having do deal with him etc, if you watch the video it's pretty disgraceful. He has been difficult with management before, his performances on the pitch for England over the past few years have been lazy and disinterested and frankly he seems like he needs someone to tell him to wind his neck in.

But as I said, I appreciate I sound like an old man and worse things happen at sea and all that.

I'm wondering how much of a problem is drinking actually has been over the last 6 years. Some of the snider reporting on this has included asides like, "Vunipola gave an interview in 2019 saying that he had quit alcohol completely. A month later, he was disciplined for missing a team meeting after a big night out," trying to imply he's been mendacious, but it reads to me like someone who may be struggling to cope with a problem. While one doesn't want to be an armchair diagnostician, it would make a lot of sense out of his fluctuations in form, weight, and perceived involvement and effort, and one doesn't just get to the stage of drinking heavily enough to be tased by the Spanish police out of nowhere.

If that is the case, he's got my sympathies and needs help, rather than condemnation. I also wonder where he's going to be playing next season - when Japanese and French clubs are trumpeting their big name signings (and sometimes their "big name" signings), there has been absolute silence on the future of the Vunipolae - if he's struggling for a contract, then that's probably not helping any problems he has (and this will not have helped him in his search for a new contract).

Thought this was an unusually sensitive take from the Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union ... est-taser/

Puja

Mellsblue wrote: ↑Tue Apr 30, 2024 9:06 am If I spent two years off the booze and then went on a weekend away with my rugby team I’d probably end up being tasered as well.
A nothing story for me with the only issue being if Sarries feel he’s been a dick on their time.
Would’ve loved to have seen the look on the police man/woman’s face when he/she entered the bar only to see that behemoth.

Puja wrote: ↑Tue Apr 30, 2024 1:05 pm

TheDasher wrote: ↑Tue Apr 30, 2024 8:51 am I feel like an old man with what I'm about to write - I mean a young sports star gets drunk and goes mad in a bar, it's not like it hasn't happened before, nobody died etc.

BUT - I don't like Vunipola, having just read his apology, he's essentially saying "there was no fighting, I've paid my fine, said sorry and that's it" - he just comes across as incredibly arrogant. What about the people who own the bar, the mess, the police officers having do deal with him etc, if you watch the video it's pretty disgraceful. He has been difficult with management before, his performances on the pitch for England over the past few years have been lazy and disinterested and frankly he seems like he needs someone to tell him to wind his neck in.

But as I said, I appreciate I sound like an old man and worse things happen at sea and all that.

I'm wondering how much of a problem is drinking actually has been over the last 6 years. Some of the snider reporting on this has included asides like, "Vunipola gave an interview in 2019 saying that he had quit alcohol completely. A month later, he was disciplined for missing a team meeting after a big night out," trying to imply he's been mendacious, but it reads to me like someone who may be struggling to cope with a problem. While one doesn't want to be an armchair diagnostician, it would make a lot of sense out of his fluctuations in form, weight, and perceived involvement and effort, and one doesn't just get to the stage of drinking heavily enough to be tased by the Spanish police out of nowhere.

If that is the case, he's got my sympathies and needs help, rather than condemnation. I also wonder where he's going to be playing next season - when Japanese and French clubs are trumpeting their big name signings (and sometimes their "big name" signings), there has been absolute silence on the future of the Vunipolae - if he's struggling for a contract, then that's probably not helping any problems he has (and this will not have helped him in his search for a new contract).

Thought this was an unusually sensitive take from the Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union ... est-taser/

Puja

jimKRFC wrote: ↑Tue Apr 30, 2024 3:10 pm

Mellsblue wrote: ↑Tue Apr 30, 2024 9:06 am If I spent two years off the booze and then went on a weekend away with my rugby team I’d probably end up being tasered as well.
A nothing story for me with the only issue being if Sarries feel he’s been a dick on their time.
Would’ve loved to have seen the look on the police man/woman’s face when he/she entered the bar only to see that behemoth.

Looking at some of the comments on the Sarries unofficial board, then the "off booze for two years" thing is a load of rubbish. Apparently he's regularly seen out and the worse for drink in St Albans.

Itoje now cited as well.

Fingers crossed both are missing the Bristol game!

Mellsblue wrote: ↑Tue Apr 30, 2024 3:42 pm

jimKRFC wrote: ↑Tue Apr 30, 2024 3:10 pm

Mellsblue wrote: ↑Tue Apr 30, 2024 9:06 am If I spent two years off the booze and then went on a weekend away with my rugby team I’d probably end up being tasered as well.
A nothing story for me with the only issue being if Sarries feel he’s been a dick on their time.
Would’ve loved to have seen the look on the police man/woman’s face when he/she entered the bar only to see that behemoth.

Looking at some of the comments on the Sarries unofficial board, then the "off booze for two years" thing is a load of rubbish. Apparently he's regularly seen out and the worse for drink in St Albans.

Itoje now cited as well.

Fingers crossed both are missing the Bristol game!

Fair enough.

Re Itoje:

https://x.com/charliefelix/status/17852 ... MV3j-SK8yQ

Which Tyler wrote: ↑Tue Apr 30, 2024 2:36 pm

Oakboy wrote: ↑Tue Apr 30, 2024 2:17 pm

Puja wrote: ↑Tue Apr 30, 2024 1:05 pm I'm wondering how much of a problem is drinking actually has been over the last 6 years. Some of the snider reporting on this has included asides like, "Vunipola gave an interview in 2019 saying that he had quit alcohol completely. A month later, he was disciplined for missing a team meeting after a big night out," trying to imply he's been mendacious, but it reads to me like someone who may be struggling to cope with a problem. While one doesn't want to be an armchair diagnostician, it would make a lot of sense out of his fluctuations in form, weight, and perceived involvement and effort, and one doesn't just get to the stage of drinking heavily enough to be tased by the Spanish police out of nowhere.

If that is the case, he's got my sympathies and needs help, rather than condemnation. I also wonder where he's going to be playing next season - when Japanese and French clubs are trumpeting their big name signings (and sometimes their "big name" signings), there has been absolute silence on the future of the Vunipolae - if he's struggling for a contract, then that's probably not helping any problems he has (and this will not have helped him in his search for a new contract).

Thought this was an unusually sensitive take from the Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union ... est-taser/

Puja

Puja, do you have the same degree of sympathy for professionals? I'd imagine that Saracens have all appropriate advice/medical facilities - rather more than was on offer to the amateur jamboree players, for example. I've binged with enthusiasm in my distant past but I am undecided on my sympathy stance when a player is being paid to behave/conform. Had I been offered a lucrative career in professional sport with a condition that I give up alcohol for 15 years, I'd have signed like a shot. Being relatively talentless, maybe that is easy for me to say, but it also leaves me struggling to understand the 'treachery' of the rule-breakers. Surely, there are better, legitimate options for relaxation of body and mind??

Not wanting to speak for Puja, but...
I'm pretty sure BVunipola is a professional; surely sympathy was in the "if suffering from addiction / mental health problems" - if so, then appropriate medical facilities are unlikely to be particularly available at the club, as it's a completely different speciality to the medical staff around a rugby club.

You can't just sign away an addiction / mental health problem, however large the contract.

jimKRFC wrote: ↑Tue Apr 30, 2024 3:10 pm Looking at some of the comments on the Sarries unofficial board, then the "off booze for two years" thing is a load of rubbish. Apparently he's regularly seen out and the worse for drink in St Albans.

Itoje now cited as well.

Fingers crossed both are missing the Bristol game!

Mellsblue wrote: ↑Tue Apr 30, 2024 3:42 pm Re Itoje:

https://x.com/charliefelix/status/17852 ... MV3j-SK8yQ

Puja wrote: ↑Tue Apr 30, 2024 3:59 pm

Mellsblue wrote: ↑Tue Apr 30, 2024 3:42 pm Re Itoje:

https://x.com/charliefelix/status/17852 ... MV3j-SK8yQ

Yeah, he'll get away with that. Bit of a shame really - I was kinda hoping he'd get a 3-game ban and get a rest till the end of the season.

Puja

16th man wrote: ↑Tue Apr 30, 2024 5:31 pm

Puja wrote: ↑Tue Apr 30, 2024 3:59 pm

Mellsblue wrote: ↑Tue Apr 30, 2024 3:42 pm Re Itoje:

https://x.com/charliefelix/status/17852 ... MV3j-SK8yQ

Yeah, he'll get away with that. Bit of a shame really - I was kinda hoping he'd get a 3-game ban and get a rest till the end of the season.

Puja

30 mins in, so not really knackered, so he should get 3 games for just how lazy his technique is to be anywhere near a head clash there.

Perfectly lined up for him to smash the guy in the ribs and probably knock the ball loose, but just doesn't even look like he tries to bend.

jimKRFC wrote: ↑Wed May 01, 2024 11:35 am The whole game should have the same rules. So I'd have the sternum tackle for the prem as well. It really hasn't been that hard to adjust to.

jimKRFC wrote: ↑Wed May 01, 2024 11:35 am Itoje cleared.

Not surprised but can't say I agree with it.

Rugby as while is making a pigs ear of head contact with the, apparently, random application of "force to head" issue.

The whole game should have the same rules. So I'd have the sternum tackle for the prem as well. It really hasn't been that hard to adjust to. The way rugby is being managed really does make we wonder why I bother with the game....