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‘Irish d***head’: Warren Gatland reveals his troll's 'sinister' ongoing campaign
By Kim Ekin
Wales head coach Warren Gatland has revealed how he was the subjected to an ongoing trolling campaign as recent as this year's Rugby World Cup after they acquired his real phone number.
In the wake of Owen Farrell's decision to step down from international duty, Gatland shared empathy for Farrell and his family in his column penned for the Daily Telegraph.
He revealed that he has had an ongoing ordeal with an "Irish d***head" who is roughly the same age as the Kiwi head coach, with the Dublin-based troll sending him sarcastic and antagonising messages before and after big games for Wales.
"At first I thought the messages were just a joke from a mate. I had previously lived in Ireland, and it just came up as a message from an Irish number," he wrote.
"Yet the messages kept coming, not many but about half a dozen times a year, usually if we had lost a game, attempting to make a sarcastic comment or jibe. It was then I realised it was not a joke, but something more sinister.
"To make sure I knew the messages were coming from the troll, I saved his number under the name ‘Irish d***head’.
"Then, during the Six Nations I received a message from the same number, but this time his name came up on his WhatsApp message profile. Perhaps he didn’t realise, or perhaps he just didn’t care.
"I looked him up on the internet and established that he appeared to be a managing director of some company in Dublin."
It was when Gatland replied with the man's real name that he thought the messages would stop but the troll recently sent him a text that read 'Waltzing Matilda...' before the World Cup pool game against Australia before Wales dispatched them 40-6.
The Kiwi head coach was left "unsettled" by the exchanges with an unknown person being able to contact him at any time.
His experience firmed his belief that "things have gone too far" on what is a "sad day for rugby" that a competitor like Owen Farrell won't be playing next year's Six Nations.
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Latest Comments
Yeah it seemed like on a recent interview Robinson was saying they pretty much get their man these days when contracting, saying they let him leave essentially. Not sure they’d go too much further out of their way to get him back if that’s what you’re suggesting should have happened. No doubt he ended up playing a lot better after he decided to leave though.
Have to think you’re going to believe something is seriously wrong with NZR come 2027! Seriously I can’t see much movement away from the 3 they have now, Dmac, Beaudy, and Pero. Some exciting talent coming through but I can’t see them having enough rough edges taken off to out bid Richie for instance. That said, having those three disrupted for a returning Richie wouldn’t be the best thing either.
Go to commentsI don’t know about that, but I aint no prop. Certainly the picture looked like they couldn’t even line up straight and got pinged twice for wheeling as a result, or Bartlett having his feet in a terrible position.
Those two on the other side were pretty experienced as wisey props though!
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