British and Irish Lions committee chairman Gerald Davies has described the reaction to Warren Gatland's comments as "a huge over-reaction."
Gatland caused a surge of news stories after claiming that taking a large number of England players on tour to Australia would add extra "media scrutiny", highlighting the behaviour of the England squad at the 2011 Rugby World Cup.
The Lions boss has since retracted his comments and now Davies has leapt to his defence, describing the story as "sensationalised out of proportion."
"I think there has been a huge over-reaction," said Davies to the Western Mail.
"It has been way over the top. I feel the headlines have hugely exaggerated what he says in the interview.
"It has been sensationalised out of all proportion. That is unfair on Warren, who actually speaks a lot of good common sense. If you read the article, he is very complimentary about England and how well they are doing at the moment.
"What he does emphasis is that when you go on a Lions tour, good behaviour and good manners are very, very important. Personality and character are important. You are sharing a long trip away from home with players from four different nations. It's important to get along well.
"As well as performing on the field, you need to behave in the right way off it. It's important to be a person that gets on with everyone else."
"When people get to know him in person, rather than from what they read in newspapers, they will realise what a really good man he is. The players will be sensible enough to wait for that moment to come along and they will find themselves motivated and inspired by him.
"They will realise that he's a man with his feet firmly on the ground and a practical man with lots of common sense and ambition."
Comments
davodiablo says...
heart_of_oak Press officer eh . How about Alister Campbell.?
Posted 22:24 18th February 2013
kybone says...
Man alive!!! What a sad sack you are my little friend. I don't know whats more sad- that you're on here purely to try and wind people up, or that you think saying that no-one likes us will wind us up! LOL. We're just crying ourselves to sleep over that bombshell!
Posted 16:28 18th February 2013
Waz4before says...
anyone else think Gerald Davies looks like he's wearing a rug in that photo .. and I bet it's not an English rug either !!!
Posted 10:55 18th February 2013
risca30 says...
It worked!!!!
Posted 20:50 17th February 2013
heart_of_oak says...
Risca30 - this site is for grown ups. Go back to the Tellytubbies.
Posted 13:59 17th February 2013
kybone says...
risca30- LOL!!! When will everyone else understand....................WE DON'T GIVE A SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!! You hate us because you're envious.
Posted 09:14 17th February 2013
risca30 says...
CELTIC LIONS...priceless, when will the english understand, nobody likes you!!!!
Posted 06:28 17th February 2013
heart_of_oak says...
Kybone, you're 100% right. I've worked all over the world, with Chinese, Aussies, yanks, French, Dutch (they're an odd lot and no mistake as APV will tell you), Scandinavians, Cambodians and God only knows what else. If I go out for a few beers now I'm likely to be drinking with Spanish, Americans, French and Italians.
It's a modern world we live in, isn't it ? In fact, if I were the team management, I would want the English, Irish etc., to go out together, have a few beers, throw a few dwarves, meet the females of the locality and generally have a damn good time.
I think it'd be worth doing this for team morale.I would also like to suggest that Gatland should stump up the cash to pay for about 20 or 30 great big meaty bouncers to beat the crap out of any media hiding in the bushes near by wherever our lads go and to allow said lads a once in life time chance to have an unforgettable experience, whether they're Irish, Scottish, English, Welsh, Samoan, Tongan, Half kiwi, Moroccan, Lunar, Chinese or Eskimo.
Posted 19:33 16th February 2013
heart_of_oak says...
Quelle surprise - Davies defends Gatland. About as unpredictable as rain in Manchester.
For me, Gatland made a gaffe and then tried to back track and put the focus on others rather than himself.
So far, I am distinctly unimpressed with Gatland's approach to media management. Get Max Clifford in to deal with this and leave Gatland to rugby matters. Or if Max isn't available, let's put out an urgent SOS for the Chuckle brothers.
Could they do any worse than Gatland ?
Posted 19:25 16th February 2013
kybone says...
One point which seems to have been missed on this debate is that people seem to be assuming that the players wont mingle, so English players will only go out with other English players, then the Irish with Irish, Welsh with Welsh, and the two Scots would have a game of chess(joking). But honestly, if any English players are targeted they're likely to be in a group containing players from the other nations so how could you possibly single them out?
Posted 16:08 16th February 2013
kybone says...
blueriver- Are we gonna bang on about these things forever. By the time the Lions comes around the incident you refer to will be nearly 2 years old. Are we not taking any Welsh players either, because Andy Powell drove a golf buggy on the M4 about 4 years ago. Looks like its up to Scotland and Ireland!
porridge_time- Bad press has courted the England team you mean! Some of the so called bad press that England got during the WC was them doing things like bungee jumping and white water rafting!- throw the book at them! I'd like you to name the minimum of 2 players that you wouldn't like as role models for your kids, because ever since SL became coach the behaviour of the England team has been exemplery.
Posted 15:54 16th February 2013
PatrickH says...
Why would he apologise for being misquoted by the media?
Posted 07:59 16th February 2013
Kent says...
@timmo - Your'e nothing if not consistent with your nonsense
Posted 20:57 15th February 2013
timmo says...
@Kent think what you like mate. Interested if I'm wrong what you think Howley brings to the coaching party on this tour - other than blagging some free know-how from Rowntree and Farrell for Wales subsequent world cup effort? The Lions code has already been broken by this gaffe-prone Kiwi clown for the English participants so whats the point? That trust can't be fixed for the tour whatever he says now and that is the one biggest element that unites the players a a team ultimately. This ser'ves as a red light that a) Gatland's interests lie elsewhere b) he is not up to a key part of the job ie talking to the press and c) foreign coaches need not apply as they simply do not 'get' the Lions ethic
Posted 13:31 15th February 2013
rugby_rockstar says...
Looks like this story has died down (for now. Its a stick that will be used to beat Gatland and the English contingent of the lions for the duration of the tour)
I've cooled down a bit, and will concede that gats was trying to pour water over the english press' premature histeria from our six nations 2 from 2 record. he did chose the stupiest most inflamatory way possible though and annoyed the hell out of the majority English lions fans to the point that we're pretty cold about the damn lions thing right now. He owes the England players an apology and he needs to leave his pathetic ego at home and not try to twist the tail of the Press because he's not clever enough to pull it off. And that, ladies and gents is our lions head coach... The wallabies have just been handed a bucket load of self confidence thanks to this Muppet.
Posted 09:34 15th February 2013
porridge_time says...
Not being a passionate Lions fan I could not careless about who is or is not selected. However, if I were a current member of the English squad or an English fan I'd find what he said extremely distasteful.
Conversely Gatland has a point, the last three times England have been in New Zealand they have courted bad press... but what he should have done is just not picked any player he deems unsuitable, which in the current England squad I can think of two who I would not be happy to have my children see as role models.
Posted 04:06 15th February 2013
melkdave says...
No matter how you crumble the cookie ,it was a stupid thing to say,as he had to know how our press would run with it,After all his been coaching here for over a decade..He should know it would be blown out o fal lproporsion to what he actually said.Best thing to do now keep stum appologise privately to the England team,and buckle down to planing the wining of the series in Australia.
Posted 13:55 14th February 2013
Kent says...
@Timmo - very mature post.
Well done, keep it up.
I'm not sure that Sir Clive Woodward is qualified to criticise as he has done - his shot as the Lions coach was a complete and unmitigated disaster in every sense.
Posted 12:59 14th February 2013
APV1 says...
The point is, if Gatland is so worried about how the media likes to create trouble, why bother giving them the opportunity to do so? It's niave at best, certainly daft, and possibly purposely destructive.
Don't give them the inch and then they can't take a yard.
@ blueriver - that was over a year ago and it's a whole different team and whole different ethos. SL has stamped his authority (the sort of stamping we do approve of, unlike Healy's!) all over the camp and it's getting there now. Danny Care learned a tough lesson and SL proved that he means business. So to hark back to 2011 is pointless. In fact, it's as pointless as Gatland's comments.
Posted 12:55 14th February 2013
LondonWasp says...
Davies, if you just kept quiet and let it die people will forget it by next weekend...
Posted 11:49 14th February 2013