From top: Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding
[Manchester club] Sale Sharks have agreed a cut-price deal to sign controversial Irish fly-half Paddy Jackson, Telegraph Sport can reveal. The Aviva Premiership club are also close to agreeing terms with centre Stuart Olding.
Jackson, 26, and Olding, 25, had their contracts terminated by Ulster last month, despite being acquitted of rape after a nine-week trial. The pair had been accused of raping the same woman at a party at Jackson’s home in June 2016.
Sharks, eh?
Rollingnews
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Sale Sharks like their Irish Bad Boys
https://www.thefreelibrary.com/DRUG+SHAME+OF+RUGBY+STAR%3b+Irish+player+faces+jail+after+police+smash…-a060414516
James O’Connor, Denny Solomana, Israel Folau (potentially) and now the Ravenhill 2. Quite the rogues gallery assembling in Sale.
Oh no poor guys, their careers are ruined, they’re only getting paid €4,400 a week now!
Also, thanks Bodger for getting “Yes” by the Manic Street Preachers stuck in my head with that headline.
Good riddance.
#TopSharkers? Club sounds less like Sharks and more like bottom feeders.
At least playing abroad, they’re ineligible to even be considered for Ireland.
Just like Sexton was?
Yeah, can safely say they are not on the same level of importance as Sexton.
Haven’t seen Madigan anywhere near an Ireland shirt since he left and he has none of the baggage of these two.
They’re not actually. There’s no hard and fast rule about playing away from Ireland and representing the country as Sexton and Murphy showed.
They won’t play for Ireland because of the controversy.
i think the IRFU does actually have a policy about foreign-based players – will only be selected if clearly superior to any home-based alternative (hence sexton, but not zebo, for example). might be top shaggers, but olding and jackson are fairly average players by international standards.
https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/international/irfu-policy-on-foreign-based-players-clear-in-ireland-squad-1.3103214
Yeah exactly, it’s a policy not a hard and fast rule.
For example, schmidt at the same time as outlining why he wouldn’t be selecting Zebo, also said he wasn’t against selecting Tadhg Beirne who is at the scarlets but is bound for munster.
Ignoring Olding because he had trouble nailing down a place anyway, Jackson would be an interesting case. Previous to this, he might get called up while playing away depending on injuries. The chances of him representing Ireland now though are close to zero.
fact that jackson hasn’t played a competitive game in 18 months (?) will be interesting too – not sure it’ll be so easy to pick up where he left off. and the game has moved on too.
There’ll be a lot of ‘what if’ conversations in pubs in the next world cup if Joey fails to progress.
yeah but c’mere Rottie
does the Irish set up even need them now anyway
deffo don’t need Olding
whatever about the other buck
Brilliant news. At least in England when you’re found Not Guilty, it actually means that and they wont have to suffer keyboard judge and juries over here who think they know better.
well said.let the lads move on with their careers.
Yup. That’s how it works over in that England.
For sure. If there’s one thing an Irish person can rely on, it’s the British justice system.
Loooooooool. Comment of the day :-) I take my hat off!
Hah! Excellent.
+ B’ham 6
I know, awful isn’t it? Especially as they were such decent and respectful fellas too.
It’s funny how, during the trial, so many people were saying “oh they behaved very badly, but it wasn’t rape” and now those same people are saying “sure they were found not guilty, they should be allowed to continue on with their lives and careers as though nothing ever happened.” It’s almost as though those people never believed there was anything wrong with calling women sluts and treating them like pieces of meat.
At least on the “mainland”, free from the regressive attitudes in Norn Iron, they might get to cut out the middle woman and the Eiffel Tower-ing and just be together without shame and recrimination. At least that way, “sluts” will be safe.
+2 becoming 1
Or they could just join The Emerald Warriors?
Ched Evens might disagree with you there
That poor lad. That was an awful case.
it’s like some sort of merry-go-round or something
Apart from anything else, that’s a bargain for Sale. An international out half for buttons. I’d imagine they will try to keep this as low key as possible given the circumstances.
Good luck to them. I hope they can move on with their lives, better informed, and present themselves better in future. Oddly, they were essentially sacked by Ulster and Ireland for the watsapp messages, but their were other players in the group, and only one got a slap on the wrist.
That was only the excuse. They were sacked because their position was untenable.
It was absolutely ridiculous that other players got suspended for private text messages that broke no law.
they’ll do well there. and i doubt they’ll get up to the carry on they were at in belfast. they have surely learned a big lesson from it all. but theres no comin back from it in such a small country and city. new lives is the only way forward. i think its a bit much to demand they never play again anywhere. i reckon gettin rooted out of belfast where they grew up and played all their lives, and were the big dogs walkin around, is a punishment that is hard for them to take. i doubt they’ll treat women like that again. a life in manchester would be grand for them, still under the queen. the little bowler hat wearing proddies.
i doubt they’ll treat women like that again. a life in manchester would be grand for them,
I’m not sure if you know anything about professional sports people in England but they will be in an envoiroment that allows for the conditions that led to this case tenfold compared to Belfast.
yea i’d imagine so. But there’s no way they’d risk even a situation that looked like something similar to before.. if it happened twice they’d never play anywhere again. they’ll be super nervous about that and will stay away from trouble. they’ll be afraid even going on dates i’d say.
Sale are not taking them on, shame that…