Wales rugby squad impose Twitter ban on themselves for duration of Six Nations

Wales’ Six Nations rugby squad has imposed a Twitter ban itself for the duration of the tournament. Any play posting is likely to be fined.

Welsh centre, Jamie Roberts, explained the thinking:

“As a group of players we have just decided to protect ourselves more than anything. You can certainly make the headlines if you put something controversial up there, as… players have found out.”

A number of incidents have taken place where sports stars have found themselves in trouble after posting public messages on Twitter.

Liverpool striker, Ryan Babel, was fined £10,000 for linking to a photoshopped picture of a referee in a Manchester United shirt, while England batsman, Kevin Pietersen got in trouble after complaining about being dropped from the one-day side.

In rugby, Roberts himself has criticised the Welsh Rugby Union for using Gavin Henson on posters, despite the fact that he doesn’t currently play for the national teams and his team mate Jonathan Thomas was in trouble last year after making a remark about the sexuality of a referee.

Roberts went on to say:

“We decided, as a group of players, to ban it during the campaign. It’s not a huge issue. I’m sure the boys will live.”