Calacus Weekly Hit & Miss – World Rugby & Justin Thomas
Every Monday we look at the best and worst communicators in the sports world from the previous week.
HIT – WORLD RUGBY SETS GENDER TARGETS
Equality and diversity have been at the heart of cultural debate over the past couple of years – with the boardroom one of the many areas where women are under-represented at executive level in sport and beyond.
World Rugby, who have faced challenges in recent months after criticism for their proposals to ban transgender women from playing women’s rugby at international level, have made female representation a key pillar of their organisation in future.
According to a press release, World Rugby’s “core objective is to strengthen the effectiveness and agility of the international federation’s governance structures to further reflect and serve the universality and diversity of a growing sport and support robust and decision-making processes for a growing global game.”
A review by the independent Governance Working Group which invited contributions from unions, regions and International Rugby Players (IRP) which led to it setting a target of 40% women on its committees and boards.
British Olympic Association chairman Sir Hugh Robertson announced the proposals and said: “These actions will strengthen diversity and inclusion and, for the first time, introduce an independent ethics structure.”
The key to credibility for any organisation is to back up words and pledges with actions, as World Rugby Chairman Bill Beaumont indicated: “We are undertaking this important and necessary process with the ambition of implementing and living the best-possible standards of good governance, furthering the effectiveness and diversity of our structures, ensuring they reflect the values and universality of the game.
“Our performance is best measured by actions, not just words. We are heading in a very encouraging direction – that enables us to best achieve our purpose of growing the sport worldwide by making it more relevant and accessible.”
The recommendations also follow recently announced interim committees, which feature broader geographic, female, independent, big business and player representation across every committee with three committees chaired by women.
A further update will be made to the World Rugby Council at its Annual Meeting in May 2021.
MISS – JUSTIN THOMAS
American golfer Justin Thomas has enjoyed a remarkable rise through the sport since earning his PGA Tour card in 2015.
The world number three has claimed 13 victories on the tour including a maiden major title at the 2017 PGA Championship, but he made the headlines for all the wrong reasons at this week’s Sentry Tournament of Champions in Hawaii.
In contention to win the tournament during Saturday’s third round, Thomas reacted to a missed five-foot putt by uttering a homophobic slur which was picked up by a television microphone.
To his credit, Thomas came out after the round to apologise for his actions, but there is no reason such a word should be part of his vocabulary.
He said: “There’s just no excuse. I’m an adult, I’m a grown man. There’s absolutely no reason for me to say anything like that. It’s terrible. I’m extremely embarrassed. It’s not who I am. It’s not the kind of person that I am. But it’s … unfortunately I did it and I have to own up to it and I’m very apologetic.
“Like I said, it’s inexcusable. I’m speechless. It’s bad. There’s no other way to put it. I need to do better. I need to be better. It’s definitely a learning experience. I deeply apologise to everybody and anybody who I offended and I’ll be better because of it.”
The PGA Tour condemned Thomas’ derogatory language in a short statement: “As he expressed after his round, we agree that Justin’s comment was unacceptable,” and the 27-year-old is expected to be fined as a result.
It’s not the first time that golf has been at the forefront of a homophobic incident after PGA Tour player Scott Piercy was dropped by his sponsors in March last year for sharing a homophobic meme on Instagram about Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Thomas spoke to the media again on Sunday after finishing a single shot behind play-off winner Harris English, once again showing remorse for his actions.
"Golf wasn't the main thing on my mind," he told Golf Channel. "Usually being four back going into Sunday, I'm thinking about one thing only and that's trying to win.
"Obviously had a lot of other things on my mind last night. I apologised ... I don't need to explain myself. I screwed up. I made a terrible judgment call. But I thought a lot last night that, we grow a lot as people over time.
"I wish I could learn to grow a different way than the way I chose to do it, but unfortunately it's in the past and there's nothing that I can do about it now.
"It definitely was a distraction out there today. But now I just get to take time going forward and try to become better because of it."
While he reacted in the right way, Thomas should never have put himself in such a position and golfers should be acutely aware that their every word will be picked up on the course.
Frustration is a part of any sport and some are better at hiding it than others. Thomas is often one to talk outwardly to himself when things are not going his way, but he will have to be very careful to avoid another slip of the tongue in the future.