FRANCE MANAGER DIDIER Deschamps predicted Patrice Evra would pay a heavy price for kicking a Marseille fan last week and says the former national captain should have known better.
“I’m neither condemning him nor judging him,” said Deschamps, for whom Evra played at Monaco and with France. ”Patrice is fully aware of the consequences.
“It’s something that you just can’t do and he knows that,” he said of the left-back assaulting one of the club’s fans ahead of a Europa League game against Vitoria Guimaraes in Portugal last Thursday.
“Decisions will follow from both UEFA and his club.”
The 36-year-old was suspended by Marseille on Friday after he was red carded for the assault which happened in the pre-match warm up.
Marseille fans made their hostile feelings clear to Evra at the club’s Velodrome stadium on Sunday unfurling banners against the player as the club thrashed Caen 5-0 in Ligue 1.
Chants rang out insulting the former Manchester United and Juventus left-back, while one banner carried the slogan “This Game is Over” in English, parodying Evra’s favourite slogan of “I love this game”.
Another banner read: “We don’t want you in our colours anymore. Evra get lost.”
One French garment designer released a t-shirt this week that reads in French “Un petit Pat pour l’homme – Un grand Pat vers la retraite” – A small step for the man, a giant step towards retirement.
The caption, a play on words with ‘Pat’ and ‘pas’ (step), of course evokes American astronaut Neil Armstrong’s iconic message back to earth when he became the first man to step on the moon in 1969.
In contrast to how Evra is remembered in Manchester, in France there has been a whiff of sulphur to Evra’s reputation since a player’s strike at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa whilst he was captain – a series of events known as ‘the Knysna affair’.
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Jack O’Donohue may as well go to France, along with Carty. What is Lowe doing in there still?
@Richard James: whatever about the other 2 O’Donoghue needs to oust O’Mahony at 6 for Munster if he wants to get back into the Irish fold. Unlucky man out for me would be Paul Boyle in that backrow.
@Cian O’Toole: he is now a better player than POM in my eyes, but POM brings a X-factor like few can. POM is also lucky to be there but he keeps doing the extraordinary bits.
@Richard James: What is X factor!? He’s either a better player for the team or he isn’t. I actually think he is better than O’Mahony, or certainly would be if he wasn’t being shoehorned into playing 7 all the time which he simply isn’t. Pity as I think he could be a very good 6.
@Richard James: i believe the primary reason Carty turned down Clermont was for a shot at Ireland. (Same with Marmion and Saracens). Sure that’s probably that.
@Richard James: Lowe is a shocking call… rees-zammit tearing down the wing at Lowe is a try 10 times outta 10
@Cathal Carr: do you honestly believe either of those 2 would be first choice at either of those clubs? Get more money to sit on the bench or stay and play at home?
@Chris Mc: I do. Because Mark McCall confirmed as such in Marmion’s case, when Aled Davies was announced a few months after.
Give me Kevin Maggs and 14 Dricos
@Sam Murray: the lineouts might be a potential weakness
Dan Sheehan is a serious underdog. The lads a beast and seriously quick.
I’m surprised the42 hasn’t mentioned that the urc refs review has come down in favour of cloete’s try the other day and reckon that beirne was onside after all. Like a lot of Irish media outlets they were very quick to back Andy friends outburst and join in the kicking of Busby and the tmo when even at the time it looked an incredibly tight call. The hypocrisy around slating rassie for anti-ref opinions and lauding friend sticks out to me
@Tim Magner: they are referring it to World Rugby as they aren’t certain. So maybe hold fire there. The statement read as an attempt to find some way to justify the decision. But to me the laws are clear. A player who is in front of the kicker must retreat to either behind the kicker or behind a player who was onside when the ball was kicked. Beirne very clearly did neither of those things. This “the only part of his body that was touching the ground when the ball was kicked” guff is simply that. If a player tried that on try line defence do you think it would be allowed? Of course not.
@John Molloy: it’s funny cos the whole gist of it after the game was that he was a mile offside
@Tim Magner: it wasn’t reviewed that is the point but Connachts disallowed try was for 2 minutes. It’s called consistency and fairness that’s all anybody wants.
@bullfrogblues: precisely, it’s the inconsistencies that are peeing off Friend and what he actually complained about. And Connacht historically have borne the brunt, and especially so in Interpro’s…
@Tim Magner: Outburst you say?, Hahaha, good one. Friendy is probably the quietest spoken bloke in Rugby, totally un-Australian. The reason the officials were rigthly criticised was they didn’t even review what you admit was at least an obviously very tight call..
@Sea__Point: friend said nothing about anyone reviewing anything. He’s quoted on this site as saying ‘to me, that try and the missed offside, that’s inexcusable’
@Tim Magner: tim the urc backing its officials is one thing but do you in all honestly believe he was onside?
@Chris Mc: I really have no idea, it’s incredibly tight & could have gone either way. The fact the ref gave onfield try negates a lot of the controversy for me. There’s definitely not enough there for a tmo to get him to reverse his decision
@Tim Magner: Yup, he was in-line, doesn’t matter no one wants to hear it. Connacht missed a golden opportunity with Munster offering it to them on a plate. They should be mad at themselves.
The thing we keep seeing is we are not looking at the next world Cup, we are looking at the here and now. As soon as the world Cup is over New Zealand looks at the squad and age profile and starts building, we keep picking players who are hanging on because of what they did in the past instead of bringing through the next players for this and the next world cup
NO.
BOX.
KICKING.