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Original poster

England rugby players and lewd comments to hotel worker

52 replies

Gigondas · 02/10/2011 11:09

Link here apology for lewd comments

Assuming this is true (assumption here I know) , the elements of bullying , sexual harassment are really unpleasant. Thought about posting this in feminism but something about this makes me feel deeply depressed as a rugby fan.

OP posts:
scaevola · 03/10/2011 07:21

I think that if she wants to bring a case for compensation, it should be against the hotel.

It was the hotel who decided to accommodate these people, it was the hotel who decided it could tolerate the descending behaviour, and it was the duty manager who sent her into the room. A very big fail.

begonyabampot · 03/10/2011 07:50

I've put up with this kind of shit in the workplace. I hated it but was young and of course would probably have got the reaction of 'fuss about nothing'. Still think the guys who did it were complete towards and would never have behaved that way with their daughters.

CaptainMartinCrieff · 03/10/2011 07:57

James Haskell sounds positively charming (see his wikipedia entry about why he was suspended from school - if it's true?) he obviously has no respect for women whatsoever, his Mum must be so proud? Sad

begonyabampot · 03/10/2011 08:38

I don't know if this girl is after compensation but as they don't seem to care about their behaviour and the apology was reported as being half hearted and words are cheap, then maybe making them put heir hands in their pockets will make them think twice about this kind of thing and make others think as well.

StewieGriffinsMom · 03/10/2011 09:19

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

SoupDragon · 03/10/2011 11:40

Sue for what exactly?

EmilyMurphyLegallyAPerson · 03/10/2011 11:49

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ThePosieParker · 03/10/2011 11:53

So they called a woman to their room with the express purpose of three adult males making her look and feel stupid....

They are twats and Zara Phillips has made a huge mistake.

Pagwatch · 03/10/2011 12:10

James Haskell is a twat tbh. Massive ego but a total show pony.

I have stayed in a hotel with the England rugby team and they behaved impeccably every time, in spite of the many attentions of persistent young women.
So I suspect that this incident falls somewhere between a woman who enjoyed and encouraged the behaviour until she saw the chance for a headline and some money and the other extreme of bullying arrogant predators.

Like everything else really. Something between thevtwo is the truth. But they should be massively bollocked. It is just embarrassing to see adults behave like school boys.

slug · 03/10/2011 15:08

Good grief Pag! That's a bit of victim blaming you've got going on there.

Pagwatch · 03/10/2011 17:22

No. It really isn't. I am sorry indeed if it sounded like that.

I said "I suspect' it falls somewhere between the extremes. I hope if she persues it then the facts will out.

If they have behaved exactly as she described they should be toast. They should never play for England again and their professional careers should be over.

It just sounds very out of character from what I have witnessed. That's all.

begonyabampot · 03/10/2011 17:38

They apologised so sort have admitted their behaviour. It is out of order to put his girl who is doing a job and has to answer to management and keep customers happy in this kind of position. Abusive and unfair. Unless it's been suggested she was lying then she should't be being criticised or partly blamed.

Pagwatch · 03/10/2011 17:43

Well I will try and catch the news tonight and catch up. I was only commenting on the link which is a tabloid, which includes info from unnamed sources and in which the players are quoted as denying the allegations.

I suspect more will be known officially by the time I catch up.

Saltire · 03/10/2011 17:46

Jeremy Guscott, whoever he is,a commentator maybe, says that the England team are acting like "kids" and showing a lack of respect, yet on of the England players claims that there's been " 2 incidents in 4or 5 weeks and it's being blown out of proportion"

PureBloodMuggle · 03/10/2011 18:12

I think it's disgusting that any man thinks it's OK to behave like this. There are plenty of men who do though, sadly.

it's because of this sad fact that I find myself a little sceptical about this situation, not in the sense that the woman is to blame or that she's did it for the money, but in the sense that it's because it's the England rugby squad.

It's too strange that they seem to be the only team whose off pitch behaviour needs so much press coverage.

Pagwatch · 03/10/2011 18:19

Jeremy guscott was one of the finest centres England has ever produced. He is now a commentator.

SauvignonBlanche · 03/10/2011 18:20

"Whoever he is" Shock

Maryz · 03/10/2011 18:21

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Pan · 03/10/2011 18:42

Am a bit speechless at some of the responses on this thread.

So she has to go to a hotel room to retreive an essential work item. She is met with 3 males, one of them half naked and another one is asking for a blow job. And she has already been exposed to sexualised unwelcolmed verbals. And apparently we would have to go a long way for evidence of sexual harassment. I mean, what else exactly would have to happen for her to claim sexual harassment?

As for contacting a lawyer? Well, the hotel management seem to have done little to manage this, and the players really couldn't see the wrong in it. I hope she still does sue the odd shaped balls off them. She is in line for direct compensation. IMO.

MmeLindor. · 03/10/2011 18:56

Even I know who Jeremy is, and i don't follow rugby.

Poor girl. If she had encouraged them, she would be a groupie. By sticking up for herself she is a gold digger.

TeamDamon · 04/10/2011 18:27

So why not contact the police then? If I felt I had been subject to sexual harassment and my employer was not taking it seriously, I wouldn't then contact the press Hmm

There is no question that the men are in the wrong, but I am very sceptical of the woman's reaction too: I would like to know whether she would have contacted a lawyer and the press had these three men not been so very high profile.

flippinada · 04/10/2011 21:08

I'm with Pan, SGM and Begonya on this one.

This sort of thing is not bloody funny and its not a joke (been on the receiving end myself). 3 grown men get a young woman on her own in a room, make sexual comments and her behaviour is pulled up for scrutiny?

Good on her for reporting it and not letting things lie I say.

AyeBelieveInTheHumanityOfMen · 04/10/2011 21:12

Any chance that some of you can raise the bar a bit as far as expectations of men's behaviour goes?

Having to deal with this sort of shit should not be an occupational hazard of being a woman.

Pan · 04/10/2011 22:42

And I am with Aye. Notes such as 'high-spirited', a 'joke that went too far', ' not really malicious' just accept a denigration of what some men do to the level of 'understanding it', a sort of really embarassing and patronising "boys will be boys" because they don't know any different, and can't think past the playground. We should be aiming for much higher than that, esp. on a site called Mumsnet.

TeamDamon - so what if they are high profile. As MmeL says, she would be belittled on this thread no matter what she did.
Lots of this thread could, and prob. is, being uttered by blokes up and down the country, who think she was fair game and needs to 'grow up a bit' whereas it's the players involved who need to do just that. IMVHO, obv.

TeamDamon · 05/10/2011 15:47

Pan: your response 'so what if they are high profile' is exactly the point I am making - the 'so what' in this case seems to be 'so I will contact a lawyer and the press rather than reporting it to the police'. I would like to know whether she would have responded in exactly the same way had these men been three anonymous business men on a conference. That is the so what about them being high profile.

And why should we be aiming higher than that 'esp. on a site called Mumsnet'? Is there some kind of code that we have to subscribe to in order to sign up; that we must be the preservers of the moral good, the last bastion of high standards? I would hope we are just as entitled to have an opinion of our own as anyone else in the country without being scolded by some Mary Whitehouse figure.

FWIW, I think their behaviour was wrong. But I don't subscribe the the commonly held MN theory that if a man does Something Bad to a woman, the woman must by default be the virgin Mary made flesh. They're all just human beings.