Quote: "Big-daft-lads-who-were-only-good-at-sport-at-school plus an instant audience for the first thing that pops into their heads is never a winning combination.'"
Fair assessment, though I wonder what McDermott's excuse might be.
As it happens I was at
rla meetingrl last night where this issue was quite a hot topic. I doubt Ian Millward would have been such a forthright speaker if he suspected that anyone would quote him on a forum the next day, so I won't do that. Instead here's my 'overall impressions'...
I got the overall impression that Rangi was found guilty despite the production of photographic, video and audio evidence which strongly suggested he wasn't. I don't feel comfortable elaborating further, but I did get the overall impression that our coach was just plain shocked at the way this issue blew up and was subsequently handled, particularly with respect to the panel's judgement. I may be very wide of the mark of course, but that's the overall impression I got.
I also got the overall impression that there will be no appeal. Not because there's any acceptance of guilt, but simply because there's absolutely no point. To appeal you should have new evidence, but if the panel isn't going to give the evidence you presented the first time any consideration, then there's just no point bothering to appeal and risk making things worse. That's not a quote, just my overall impression.
What I can say with absolute certainty though is that any residual faith I may have had in the RFL's due process was completely evaporated by the time the meeting closed.