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'It was an accident' - The time James Botham spoke over Alun Wyn Jones and instantly regretted it
By Ian Cameron
After a promising Autumn Nations Cup, Wales flanker James Botham was one of the surprise omissions from Wayne Pivac's Guinness Six Nations squad.
Botham initially made headlines due to his famous grandad Sir Ian Botham, the English cricketing legend, and the fact that 22-year-old had sworn allegiance to the Welsh dragon and not the red rose.
Yet soon it was the Cardiff Blues flanker's impressive performances that were doing the talking for him on the pitch. A strong debut against Georgia was followed by solid performances against Italy and England.
Yet it hasn't all been plain sailing.
Leaving aside his exclusion from Pivac's most recent squad selection - being passed over for the experience of established star Josh Navidi and recalled British and Irish Lions Dan Lydiate isn't much of a snub to be fair - Botham admits to having put his foot in it on one of his early Welsh camps.
Speaking to Ross Harris in an in-depth interview with TheXV, Botham detailed the faux pas in the lead up to the match with England.
“Alun Wyn is a really nice guy and he’s the best player, but I made the mistake of speaking when he was speaking. It was an accident – and I would never do it again," recalled a still apologetic Botham.
"It was before the game against England, and we were going through a line out walkthrough.”
While the rest of the forwards listened intently, Botham, as yet unfamiliar with how things are done, made the mistake of turning to his teammate to ask a technical question, right in the middle of his skipper's talk.
“I was asking a question to one of the other boys about tail-gunning, and he just… stopped. He looked straight at me and said, ‘You all right, Jim?’”
As Botham tells it, it was very much a rhetorical question from the 152-cap Welsh icon as opposed to a genuine inquiry into the young buck's well being.
“I went straight back into my shell, put it that way. I shut up and listened to every word from then on in. I should have waited and asked at the end.”
If anything it's an endearing anecdote - the fresh-faced newbie making an amusing misstep in hallowed company. No doubt he'll have many more opportunities to make an impression with Wales, even if it's not in his immediate future.
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Don’t pay a blind bit of notice to Lukie… he likes the sound of his own voice and is always looking for something controversial to say. He has been banging on about Leinster's defensive system all season like he knows something Jacques Nienebar doesn’t. Which is the reason why he didn’t apply for the job obviously
Go to commentsI’m all for speeding up the game. But can we be certain that the slowness of the game contributed to fans walking out? I’m not so sure. Super rugby largely suffered from most fans only being able to, really, follow the games played in their own time zone. So at least a third of the fan base wasn’t engaged at any point in time. As a Saffer following SA teams in the URC - I now watch virtually every European game played on the weekend. In SR, I wouldn’t be bothered to follow the games being played on the other side of the world, at weird hours, if my team wasn’t playing. I now follow the whole tournament and not just the games in my time zone. Second, with New Zealand teams always winning. It’s like formula one. When one team dominates, people lose interest. After COVID, with SA leaving and Australia dipping in form, SR became an even greater one horse race. Thats why I think Japan’s league needs to get in the mix. The international flavor of those teams could make for a great spectacle. But surely if we believe that shaving seconds off lost time events in rugby is going to draw fans back, we should be shown some figures that supports this idea before we draw any major conclusions. Where are the stats that shows these changes have made that sort of impact? We’ve measured down to the average no. Of seconds per game. Where the measurement of the impact on the fanbase? Does a rugby “fan” who lost interest because of ball in play time suddenly have a revived interest because we’ve saved or brought back into play a matter of seconds or a few minutes each game? I doubt it. I don’t thinks it’s even a noticeable difference to be impactful. The 20 min red card idea. Agreed. Let’s give it a go. But I think it’s fairer that the player sent off is substituted and plays no further part in the game as a consequence.
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