Sale Sharks cause another uproar

SOCIAL MEDIA SPOTLIGHT: There’s a fine art to Twitter – especially when you have the backing of an incredibly successful professional rugby club.

It’s fair to say that Sale Sharks didn’t quite get their social media game right on Thursday, with one particular tweet drawing plenty of criticism.

The Sharks account Tweeted out a short clip of an excellent piece of skill from loose forward Ben Curry, who was one of Sale’s best performers in their Premiership Cup win over Harlequins over the weekend.

The clip showed Curry making the most of some ragged defence after receiving the ball shortly after a kickoff by chipping ahead and tearing off down the field in pursuit.

22-year-old Curry manages to outpace the turning Harlequins defence and reclaims the ball but the play ultimately comes to nothing.

35-year-old Mike Brown, who had to turn and chase the ball, is the fullback in question.

Social media users have chastised the account for framing the clip around how Curry bested Brown instead of simply focussing on the flank’s excellent skill-set.

Brown, who was tagged in the Tweet, responded by saying “Luckily [the social media poster is] not a representation of how [the players] are.”

It’s not the content of the clip that has some calling the Tweet “embarrassing” and “unprofessional”, however; it’s the message accompanying the video, which highlights Curry “dusting and [sic] England Rugby fullback”.

Users of the social media platform were quick to take sides, with the majority suggesting that the Tweet was poorly thought out and in ill-taste.

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Mike Brown wasn’t the only high-profile Twitter user to respond to the Tweet, however, with the Harlequins and Saracens’ accounts jumping in to respond.

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