Gareth Davies called the Dragons “average” on Saturday night and then spent Sunday morning writing out an apology, the Scarlets announced this week. What a load of nonsense, says Graham Thomas.
In Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell defined freedom as the right to say that two plus two make four.
In modern day Welsh rugby, Gareth Davies has discovered he has lost his right to say that two wins all season makes a poor rugby team.
The apology of the Scarlets’ scrum-half for his description of the Dragons as “very average” – and in particular, its public airing – is a risible response by the region that brings far more discredit on them than anything Davies uttered in the first place.
Shaming players to the wider world is not a tactic that goes down well with players, particularly when it is completely undeserved.
This is a very different set of circumstances to the last time Wayne Pivac gave one of his squad a very public slapping. That was 18 months ago when James Davies was rightly told to ‘fess up and say sorry after immaturely making a ‘wanker sign’ to a referee.
But it is hard to imagine Pivac was the one outraged by his No.9 telling the world in plain terms what they already knew – that the Dragons are not very good.
Rather, it has the whiff of something demanded elsewhere in the organisation – a knee-jerk corporate response to the misplaced idea that speaking the truth might just offend someone, somewhere and therefore has to be stamped upon.
The message is clear. Don’t tell the truth. Don’t be honest. Say nothing of any interest. Be a dullard for the rest of your playing career.
Until, of course, you hang up your boots and become a pundit and then you will be expected to transform yourself overnight into someone with something to say.
It is absurd to suggest that Davies’s remarks were either offensive or insulting, or in any way untrue.
He didn’t claim the Dragons cheat, make dangerous tackles, feign injuries, take banned drugs, or bribe referees. He said they weren’t very good – bang average, in fact.
Do any Dragons fans really want to argue with that? There may have been difficulties at the region this season, there may be aspects of their development – on and off the field – that give cause for optimism. But as far as their results and performances go, calling them “average” is putting it kindly.
Still unsure that Davies has been hung out to dry for no good reason?
Still unconcerned by the effect this kind of nonsense could now have on other players who are asked for post-match opinions?
Then, imagine Steve Hansen or Eddie Jones, or Jose Mourinho, or Anthony Joshua, or Lewis Hamilton saying this about an opponent they had just beaten with ease, and then being ordered to apologise.
“Every time we play against the Dragons they seem to bring us down to their level of rugby, which is very average in my opinion.
“We are expecting a tougher challenge against the Cheetahs next week, they like to play a bit of rugby and hopefully it will be a good game and we can come out on top.”
“It should be an open game, a lot different to today. The Dragons are not up to much are they? Like I said, they brought us down to their standard of rugby, which is very frustrating for us, the Cheetahs like to play a bit and we will look forward to that.”
By the end of Nineteen Eighty Four, Winston Smith loves Big Brother.
The important thing, though, is that he confesses to the errors of his ways.
He is told: “When finally you surrender to us, it must be of your own free will. We do not destroy the heretic because he resists us: so long as he resists us we never destroy him.
“We convert him, we capture his inner mind, we reshape him. We burn all evil and all illusion out of him; we bring him over to our side, not in appearance, but genuinely, heart and soul.”
