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Former All Blacks star slams veteran commentator Keith Quinn's 'harmful' Twitter post

(Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

Former All Blacks star Zac Guildford has hit out at veteran rugby commentator Keith Quinn’s advice to New Zealand men to “harden up”.

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Quinn sparked controversy on Twitter on Monday night with the post in which he questioned “bloke- ism”.

“What’s happening to bloke-ism? In the TV news the last few days Dustin Johnson, Lewis Hamilton & Puma rugby players & coach all crying their eyes out. Would the sight of All Blacks wearing pink boots have moved Pinetree Meads? I doubt it. Harden up – blokes of today,” the broadcaster posted.

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After a meteoric ascent into representative rugby, including being part of the victorious All Blacks squad at the 2011 Rugby World Cup, Guildford has been plagued by off-field problems with alcohol and depressions, including a much publicised 2011 incident at a Rarotonga resort where he assaulted a patron while inebriated.

Guildford also sensationally walked out on French club Nevers early last year – only months after signing a new contract.

In an interview with NZME on Tuesday, Guildford described Quinn’s comments as “outdated” and “damaging”.

“Having not been able to open up and keeping it bottled up, my emotions eventually boiled over and got the better of me,” Guildford said.

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“One comment by someone like that, in a position of authority can undo a lot of good work that others are putting in, moving rugby forward.

“It was a huge factor in jeopardising my career because all my feelings I had inside had no way to come out, except when I was drinking and when they came out, they came out in a bad way.”

While not directly replying to Quinn’s tweet, All Blacks icon Sir John Kirwan also made his stance clear, posting, “My highlight from the weekend was the team and Mario Ledesma crying, made me cry. Beautiful,” he wrote.

Dozens of other Kiwi Twitter users replied to Quinn’s tweet expressing their disappointment at his views.

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“No Keith you’ve got this exactly backwards,” one Twitter user replied. “It’s great to see top sportsmen unafraid to express emotion, and explicitly rejecting the ‘harden up’ ethos of years gone by. More of this please.”

https://twitter.com/Dean_Nimbly/status/1328223333314224129

“This makes me really sad. I grew up watching rugby with my dad by my side and you in our ears. Dad’s gone now but he was learning to mellow as he aged and be less repressed about his feelings. I hope you can learn that too,” another Kiwi said.

https://twitter.com/fascismdad/status/1328227413071777792

Quinn eventually backtracked from the initial comment, posting: “Point taken everyone. For the record and in all seriousness I think it’s great these days that men can openly express their emotions. I often do myself. I was really just thinking of the differences from earlier times.”

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J
JW 37 minutes ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Where? I remember saying "unders"? The LNR was formed by the FFR, if I said that in a way that meant the 'pro' side of the game didn't have an equal representation/say as the 'amateur' side (FFR remit) that was not my intent.


But also, as it is the governing body, it also has more responsibility. As long as WR looks at FFR as the running body for rugby in France, that 'power' will remain. If the LNR refuses to govern their clubs use of players to enable a request by FFR (from WR) to ensure it's players are able to compete in International rugby takes place they will simply remove their participation. If the players complain to the France's body, either of their health and safety concerns (through playing too many 'minutes' etc) or that they are not allowed to be part in matches of national interest, my understanding is action can be taken against the LNR like it could be any other body/business. I see where you're coming from now re EPCR and the shake up they gave it, yes, that wasn't meant to be a separate statement to say that FFR can threaten them with EPCR expulsion by itself, simply that it would be a strong repercussion for those teams to be removed (no one would want them after the above).


You keep bringing up these other things I cannot understand why. Again, do you think if the LNR were not acting responsibly they would be able to get away with whatever they want (the attitude of these posters saying "they pay the players")? You may deem what theyre doing currently as being irresponsible but most do not. Countries like New Zealand have not even complained about it because they've never had it different, never got things like windfall TV contracts from France, so they can't complain because theyre not missing out on anything. Sure, if the French kept doing things like withholding million dollar game payments, or causing millions of dollars of devaluation in rights, they these things I'm outlining would be taking place. That's not the case currently however, no one here really cares what the French do. It's upto them to sort themselves out if they're not happy. Now, that said, if they did make it obvious to World Rugby that they were never going to send the French side away (like they possibly did stating their intent to exclude 20 targeted players) in July, well then they would simply be given XV fixtures against tier 2 sides during that window and the FFR would need to do things like the 50/50 revenue split to get big teams visiting in Nov.

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