Paddy Jackson hired for London Irish Rugby.

[StrippingTheVelvet]

After a year with his tail between his legs, Paddy has now been hired by LIRFC. I have attached the list of their sponsors below if anyone has time to send an email or two asking them to put pressure on for the decision to be reconsidered. I'm very articulate, but if it makes it easier feel free to use my letter.

"Good afternoon

I was hoping you could clarify your position on whether Pump Technology expects a certain standard of behaviour from both the organisations they sponsor and those associated with them? I am disturbed to hear about the recent appointment of Paddy Jackson to LIRFC. As you financially support LIRFC one can only assume that you endorse their decisions.

Given the level of public prominence players have and that they are viewed as role models for our young men to aspire to, do you feel this appointment is appropriate and are you happy to be associated with and financially support this decision?

I would urge you to please discuss this with LIRFC in the same way as Ulster Rugby's sponsors did to ensure there was no negative impact on their businesses.

Kindest regards,"

It's a public forum, not your private club, I shall post where I like. Also, if you make sweeping assertions don't be surprised if they are challenged.

I shall post where I like indeed you shall, but any NAMALT bullshit, and you’ll be challenged for your misogynistic crap.

London Irish sponsors

Whilst working through the list and emailing I’m also looking at their gender pay gap reports which as always, makes for an interesting read...

www.london-irish.com/sponsorship/sponsors-and-partners/54/

@StrippingTheVelvet I got a response back from 9group too and have replied accordingly.

Bump

Four sponsors done.
Apparently Diageo (Guinness) commit to a response within 5 days.

London Irish appears to be trolling - Joe else to explain this article. No mention of why Jackson no longer plays for Ireland. No mention of his appalling and undisputed treatment of the female victim, including the misogynistic WhatsApp messages.

www.london-irish.com/news/irish-flyhalf-signs-for-london-irish/bp2166/

*how not Joe

Irish will have factored insome degree of backlash when they decided to employ Jackson and they will have discussed it with their sponsors.

Whatever you think of him or his previous conduct, the relevant considerations for Irish will be :
A, Jackson was acquitted.
B, He is available, and is unlikely to be picked for Ireland any time soon.
C, He is an outstanding player.

C is debatable. There are more relevant considerations.

Sports clubs are supposed to uphold certain standards as players represent their community. The WhatsApp messages are unacceptable and he doesn’t deserve to have the platform or privilege that comes with this anymore.
If the Wallabies can’t get their sponsors onboard to retain Folau, I don’t know how the hell London Irish sponsors can just ignore this.

Dear dear.
Another mans life ruined.

Utterly appalled by this, and I have emailed London Irish CEO Brian Facer expressing my views. I am a long standing member of another premiership club, and I have made it clear that I shall be protesting when London Irish visit. Onto the sponsors next.

www.irishnews.com/news/2018/10/13/news/ireland-rugby-captain-tells-of-difficult-time-following-appearance-at-belfast-rape-trial-as-character-witness-1457426/

This annoyed me. I used to think Rory Best was decent. There's none so blind as those who will not see. How can he have looked at those Whatsapp messages and heard the physical and emotional state that young woman was left on and still think his mates are decent blokes and that the most important lesson his children can learn from this is standing up for your mates. I feel sorry for his children. If they grow up and read about this they'll probably think he was just being a craven arsehole.
My husband was all "ahhh" over Best playing his final games, what a good bloke and great captain blah blah. I used to think that. Now I think- just another rape apologist.

What saddens me is that him wearing black make up is way more likely to make sponsors act than him degrading and injuring women/a woman. That's not a reflection on what I think of racism by the way, more an observation on how little value women are given

It happened years ago and seemed to have no effect on his career.

I used to think Rory Best was decent.

I didn’t have an opinion on him before, I certainly do now. He’s awful. His attitude is disgraceful. Nobody said a damn thing about his behaviour from within rugby, but there was a #notmycaptain hashtag going around.

I was very disappointed with Rory Best too.
He has a daughter, a wife and a mother.

Best really fell short of behaving like a decent human being. It tells you everything you need to know when he said: "I feel that it's a lesson I hope my kids take from it. If you have friends that are in trouble and they need a bit of help and support, and if they are promising you that they have done nothing wrong, even though people may not think it's the right thing to do, I think it is".

Lads stick together. Full stop. End of story. And that I think captures the fall-out of what another poster referred to as the "pack mentality". The team comes first. Before decency, before honesty, before integrity - and certainly before women.

Placemarking as I want to remember to complain about this to the club and sponsors when I get home from work.

What a vile piece of scum. And I've never used that word before but I think in this case I can.

The injuries that woman suffered would have been seen as proof of rape once upon a time - now we’re in a situation where women are believed to enjoy “rough sex” and so that evidence is ignored.

Anyone who thinks that women can enjoy sex with a 1cm laceration in their vagina should try to imagine a man doing the same with a 1cm laceration on his penis or scrotum, and then ask themselves why the first is apparently plausible and the latter unthinkable.

The defence lawyer said that rape frequently does not result in injury - what he neglected to mention is that this significant an injury is almost impossible to occur in consensual sex without both partners thinking they need to visit A&E.

the courts have decided he was innocent

No, they didn't. The way rape apologists twist the terminology to sanitise men's behaviour sickens me. He was found not guilty in a court of law. That does not make him some pure little lamb who hasn't done anything wrong.

The team comes first. Before decency, before honesty, before integrity - and certainly before women.

This is absolutely true, it’s a basic of team sports and it’s driven home to the players repeatedly. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be successful teams. Part of being ‘the best’ is sticking together as a tight unit. Part of the fallout from Israel Folau is his team saying he put himself and his beliefs before the good of the team. Oh the irony that nobody says that to the guys that hurt women. I noticed when Sevu Reece was signed by the Crusaders how eager the coaches were to talk him up, despite beating his gf in public months earlier, they were going above and beyond, even referring to him as a ‘great human’. They have to make sure that both him and his teammates believe that and that his violence doesn’t come into their thinking.
Look at the 2008 England rugby team tour of NZ and you’ll see that Mike Brown, Danny Care & Topsy Ojo were accused of rape, a fourth unnamed player also, the guys all denied it were just given a fine for missing physio I believe. The girl told hospital staff who called the police but she was too frightened to pursue it. She stood by her statement but as all 4 players had the same story of consensual sex, nothing happened. It’s actually easier for them to get off gang rape as they can back each other up, then if they were alone.
In 2016 NZ super rugby team the chiefs were accused of abusing a stripper they had hired for an end of season function. Obviously they all denied it, it was one woman against all of them. The public didn’t care about a stripper. Not only did the team stick together, but it involved only a handful of players, who remained unnamed and the entire team took the blame and were given ‘warnings’ not to hire strippers again. Likely there were All Blacks involved so the team took the hit as a group to save their careers.

I do think it might be better if people compose their own emails. If everyone says the same the companies may treat them as one source of complaint and ignore.

Here are some contact details:

[email protected]
Michael Crossan (Chairman)
PowerDay is a “principle” sponsor of the club

[email protected]
Brendan Kerr, CEO
Keltbray is an “elite” sponsor

[email protected]
James Palmer, CEO
9Group is also an “elite” sponsor

[email protected]
Sean Fitzpatrick, Chairman.
VGC is also an “elite” sponsor

Strongly worded article in the Guardian of all places:

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/10/paddy-jackson-revived-career-backward-step-feminism