|
 We track down the Top 14 stars currently wasting their time and yours sharing messages with fans, friends and family on troublesome microblogging site Twitter
Social whatsitting site Twitter is the bane of coaches' lives at the moment. First Leicester's Richard Cockerill banned his players from using it after Jordan Crane tweeted news of his serious ankle injury on the site, then American football Chad Ochocinco was fined $25,000 for sending tweets as he sat on the bench during a match.
Finally, dropped England cricketer Kevin Pietersen let rip on the write-now-regret-later portal and may face disciplinary action for the outburst.
But do Marc Lievremont and Top 14 management have anything to fear from the loose lips of their charges? We track down the Tweeting stars of the French game and rate their 140-word blogs so you don't have to waste your time doing the same...
Sebastien Chabal - http://twitter.com/sebchabal - 21,532 followers
Le Roi des Tweeteurs. Sebastien Chabal recently used his blog to criticise the fixture pile-up and earlier this year got into hot water for revealing on Twitter that a back injury had ruled him out of France's Six Nations' opener with Scotland. But generally the Caveman just lets you know if his flight is delayed, that he's emptied the boot of his car or that he's just enjoyed a good post-match pasta (there was even a photo). He also has an English translation - http://twitter.com/sebchabal_eng - but it's usually a few hours behind.
Typical Tweet: Gros oeuvre hier soir, j'ai vidé le coffre de ma voiture. C'est ma case aux trésors. Et des trésors, je n'en manquais pas (Tue Aug 24 09:28:20 2010)
Suivre or leave? Suivre. Or he'll be round for a word.
Lionel Nallet - http://twitter.com/nallet - 2,700 followers
Chabal's captain and best mate Nallet is an occasional tweeter, usually prompted by his bearded buddy. Apart from a recent post-pasta comment (Lionel's was without tomato sauce, apparently), Nallet's biggest blogging burst was a minute-by-minute report of a pre-season friendly against Toulon. We don't think he was playing at the time...
Typical Tweet: 9 à 0 (8:02 PM Jul 30th)
Suivre or leave? Suivre, but only in tandem with Chabal.
Jerome Fillol - http://twitter.com/jeromefillol - 293 followers
The third member of Racing's Twitter Trinity, Fillol's page is mainly two-word comments on the Francilians' matches and adverts for his Paris bar, Mil'a (11 Rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau, tell him we sent you).
Typical Tweet: N'oubliez pas La soirée Paillote Beach Party de fermeture estivale le vendredi 30 juillet chez mil'a. Groupe mil'a Facebook Chezmila.fr (7:16 PM Jul 28th)
Suivre or leave? Leave. Unless you want to know what's on at Chez Mil'a this week.
James Haskell - http://twitter.com/jameshaskell - 8,147 followers
He may not have the following of cross-town rival Chabal, but with 2,557 posts Stade Francais flanker Haskell is the veritable Titan of Top 14 Twitting. The England star shares training schedules, dietary habits and after-match thoughts, but it's his multimedia insights into the more mundane aspects of his bachelor life in Paris that make him worth following - photos of teammates in civvies, videos of damp-squib barbecues, stories of dropping waitresses on their heads in Paris bars and regular podcasts with straight man Ollie Phillips discussing such all-important issues as the shagability of his 55-year-old Romanian cleaner.
Typical Tweet: Team run done for today, R.Roncero wore an amazing wig today that actually suited him. He looked like Maradonna. Just off for lunch (1:01 PM Aug 19th)
Suivre or leave? Suivre. As an entertaining self-publicist, Haskell makes Stade owner Max Guazzini look like Howard Hughes.
Ollie Phillips - http://twitter.com/olliephillips11 - 2,686 followers
With 4,567 Tweets dans le sac, Haskell's wingman Phillips is busy but not as interesting as his mate - most of his comments are replies to others, giving his page the look of a stream-of-consciousness session on the couch.
Typical Tweet: Waiting on @jameshaskell doing another interview. Daily mail + Lucozade this time. Look at him holding court!! (4:29 PM Aug 26th)
Suivre or leave? Suivre. Haskell without Phillips is like Morecambe without Wise, Ant without Dec, sausage without mash.
Felipe Contepomi - http://twitter.com/felipecontepomi - 2,444 followers
How not to run a Twitter page. The Argentine's last message was in June 2009. Clearly a player who does his tweeting on the pitch.
Typical Tweet (his only tweet, in fact): My interview on Ireland AM (1:51 PM Jun 24th, 2009)
Suivre or leave? Leave. He's not going to notice anyway.
Philip Burger - http://twitter.com/PhilipBurger - 194 followers
Perpignan full-back Burger offers a curious mix of opinions on South African rugby and the odd insight into life in Catalunya, although his photos of pre-season boot camp were the last interesting thing he posted. He's the king of the retweet (where you just pass on someone else's posts) and most of his posts are in Afrikaans.
Typical Tweet: Raait, kom ons maak bietjie merde (Fri Aug 20 12:22:25 2010 )
Suivre or leave? Suivre. Although he'd better buck up his ideas.
Frederic Michalak - http://twitter.com/michalakfred - 1,373 followers
Follow Toulouse fly-half Freddie back to full fitness via his regularly updated Twitter feed. So far his rehabilitation has included a few jars at De Danu, a night at his own Cafe 64 Tapas bar and a kebab - at lunchtime! He is keen on his photos too - here's one of a particularly tough training session - and rubs virtual shoulders with other French sportsmen.
Typical Tweet: Soooo happy to run again after 4 month injury! 2 more month and i play again:) (9:06 AM Jul 23rd)
Suivre or leave? Suivre, if only to follow stephaniLoNdOn's attempts at stalking poor Fred.
Joe van Niekerk - http://twitter.com/bigjoevn - 546 followers
Toulon flanker Joe reads like a cheerleader for his club, liberally spraying exclamation marks through his posts but always up for the next red & black battle!!!
Typical Tweet: Bayonne must feel the power of the Red and Black machine!!!Allez Toulon (10:27 PM Aug 12th)
Suivre or leave? Suivre, but be warned - you will find yourself shouting most of his posts!!!!!
Tom May - http://twitter.com/TomMay1 - 1,045 followers
Poor Tom, he seems to spend most of his time aching after his latest day at the office. Still, as busy webmasters we know how hard running a site like his own grass-roots rugby portal www.everythingrugby.com can be.
Typical Tweet: Feeling bit ill today - trained and been given so many pills I rattle. Now in my pit 4 a couple of hours. Never take for granted feelin gd! (Mon Aug 30 11:13:42 2010)
Suivre or leave? Suivre, if only to follow his exchanges with children's TV star Andi Peters. Really.
Joe El-Abd - http://twitter.com/joeelabd - 65 followers
A recent arrival to the Twitterverse, Toulon back-rower Joe is already a prodigious Tweeter, and even manages to show off some of his French on his page.
Typical Tweet: A great win away at biarritz 13 3, first time in 29 years! I'm now going to enjoy the night! (10:53 PM Aug 20th)
Suivre or leave? Suivre. C'mon, he's got even fewer followers than we have!
Jamie Noon - http://twitter.com/noony_13 - 526 followers
Brive centre (and occasional captain) Noon may be spending his third year in France but his Twitter page keeps him in touch with former Newcastle and England colleagues like Charlie Hodgson, David Strettle and Tom May. He's also game for a bit of banter with friends and fans alike.
Typical Tweet: Well not gr8 day at office. Captain got a yellow. Did some good stuff and some crap stuff. Not long b4 nxt match so got to pick ourselves up (8:23 PM Aug 28th)
Suivre or leave: Suivre. After Antonie Claasen's page went walkabout this week, the only Briviste on Twitter.
You can also follow Le Rugby's own Twitter feed at http://twitter.com/lerugby. It's just links to the stuff that we put up here, really. |