ENGLAND

Hopley: Media to suffer

Saturday 12th July 2008

Evolution: Players will now be wary of press

Players' chief Damian Hopley claims England internationals have become more wary of the media in response to coverage of the tour to New Zealand.

Hopley claims the speculative reporting regarding allegations of sexual assault, which emerged after last month's drubbing by the All Blacks in Auckland, has shown players are now "fair game".

But Hopley, Chief Executive of the Professional Rugby Players' Association, accepts the changing landscape is indicative of rugby's ever-growing profile.

"For the first time, possibly since Lawrence Dallaglio appeared in a Sunday paper in 1999, we are seeing a different side to the media," he said.

"That's partly because of the evolution of the game. It's sad but inevitable because players have become fair game.

"This sends out a serious message to our industry to be wary.

"In a way, we're victims of our own success because you only have to look at where world rugby has gone since England won the World Cup in 2003 to see how big the profile is.

"But, as a game, we pride ourselves on having an inclusive family image. We need to guard that image."

Jeff Blackett, the Rugby Football Union's chief disciplinary officer who conducted the internal investigation into the tour, was critical of the media in his report.

And Hopley concurs that coverage of the allegations was damaging to the sport and certain relationships within it.

"The media speculation about what had gone on was hugely overblown. Jeff Blackett had some very strong words about how the media treated this," Hopley continued.

"Unfortunately, because the players couldn't clear their names, the media were able to feed off that uncertainty by printing speculation.

"That speculation has caused a lot of damage to media and player relations.

"We've traditionally been very lucky in terms of the coverage of our game - we have an excellent relationship with the rugby writers.

"But this is unchartered waters for the game because the coverage hasn't been about rugby. That was wrong because the players hadn't done anything wrong.

"As soon as the void of uncertainty emerged over whether the complainant was going to press charges, everyone started speculating.

"From that point, the conduct of the media changed."