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'You guys want athletes to have opinions and then when they do a lot of people are shot in the foot for it'

Some of the England rugby team kneeling /Getty via PA

England wing Anthony Watson has hit back at critics of players taking a knee and those who didn’t in support of the Black Live Matter movement before last weekend’s clash with Scotland at Twickenham.

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Watson is aware of online criticism and today made it clear he would not be silent because he felt aggrieved about the reaction and said: “I just feel very strongly it is a double standard at the moment and you guys and everyone wants athletes to have opinions and express themselves and then when they do a lot of people are shot in the foot for it and even more serious things can come from it. I think particularly with the kneeling stuff and the Black Live Matter stuff people who are educated fully on why kneeling was started then they would be in a much better place to comment on what we are doing and what is going on.

england squad rugby
Anthony Watson PA
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Eddie Jones on non-selections of Ollie Lawrence and Odogwu | Six Nations 2021

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Eddie Jones on non-selections of Ollie Lawrence and Odogwu | Six Nations 2021

“Not everyone who is kneeling is directly associated with the Black Lives Matter organisation because some of their view in my opinion are a bit extreme. But the importance of kneeling to raise awareness of social injustice I feel is still massively important. To see people on social media try to discredit its importance – I can’t let that slide. People want to jump on it because it is their way of disagreeing with it instantly.”

After the England game Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend addressed the criticism that taking a knee had created at Twickenham. He said: “It was a strange situation and I understand why people see a photo of a lot of players not taking the knee and that’s an issue for them. They’re right to have their opinions.

“But it was a big surprise to us, and nothing that happened in any other game, whether it’s Ireland, Wales, Italy or France or any game in the Autumn Nations that we were involved in were taking the knee. So rugby and the Autumn Nations and the Six Nations have declared that we will recognise that moment in our stand against racism and discrimination by putting messages on the screen.”

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J
JW 41 minutes ago
Why England's defence of the realm has crumbled without Felix Jones

This piece is nothing more than the result of revisionist fancy of Northern Hemisphere rugby fans. Seeing what they want to see, helped but some surprisingly good results and a desire to get excited about doing something well.


I went back through the 6N highlights and sure enough in every English win I remembered seeing these exact holes on the inside, that are supposedly the fallout out of a Felix Jones system breaking down in the hands of some replacement. Every time the commentators mentioned England being targeted up the seam/around the ruck or whatever. Each game had a try scored on the inside of the blitz, no doubt it was a theme throughout all of their games. Will Jordan specifically says that Holland had design that move to target space he saw during their home series win.


Well I'm here to tell you they were the same holes in a Felix Jones system being built as well. This woe is now sentiment has got to stop. The game is on a high, these games have been fantastic! It is Englands attack that has seen their stocks increase this year, and no doubt that is what SB told him was the teams priority. Or it's simply science, with Englands elite players having worked towards a new player welfare and management system, as part of new partnership with the ERU, that's dictating what the players can and can't put their bodies through.


The only bit of truth in this article is that Felix is not there to work on fixing his defence. England threw away another good chance of winning in the weekend when they froze all enterprise under pressure when no longer playing attacking footy for the second half. That mindset helped (or not helped if you like) of course by all this knee jerk, red brained criticism.

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LONG READ Why England's defence of the realm has crumbled without Felix Jones Why England's defence of the realm has crumbled without Felix Jones
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