On Monday it will be 40 days and nights since Paddy Jackson’s solicitor was asked what the future held for his client and his fellow Ulster team-mate Stuart Olding. The pair had just been acquitted of rape charges after a high-profile court case at Belfast’s high court and, according to his legal representative, Jackson simply wanted “to return to work, getting back on the rugby pitch, representing his province and his country”.
Instead both players remain adrift in the sporting wilderness. Jackson, a 26-year-old fly-half, has 25 caps and what appeared a bright future. Olding, a year younger, has four caps as a versatile back and a future that was viewed in similar terms. But this was before a night out in June 2016 that led to both being charged with rape and an eventual trial in which both were found not guilty in March.
Sale deny interest in signing trial pair Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding
During the trial a number of WhatsApp messages, involving explicit sexual terminology, were used as evidence and shortly after the trial more than 100 people crowdfunded a newspaper advert to demand the pair never play for Ulster or Ireland again. On 14 April their contracts were revoked by province and country.
Now the domestic rugby season is entering its final weeks but Jackson and Olding remain on the sidelines. This week Sale Sharks became the latest club to have second thoughts about offering employment to the two players.
To many the grim nature of some of the WhatsApp messages exchanged between the players should disqualify them from any possibility of sympathy. The unsavoury sexual details have been widely broadcast and the stark contrast between the morning-after bragging and the victim’s pain and emotional suffering is no less offensive now. In that context the future of mere sporting careers becomes, at best, relative.
None of the other three provinces in Ireland will touch them. One or two clubs in England and France have vaguely considered employing them, only to back off swiftly following an angry backlash from sponsors and fans.
Unless the Sharks are lying through their sharp-edged teeth, Jackson’s and Olding’s hopes of making a fresh start in Manchester are set to be dashed, with at least one sponsor advising against signing the pair, the local MP getting involved and an online petition being launched. What might have been a potential bolthole has been abruptly blocked, for now at least.
The two internationals, in short, find themselves not a million miles away from the territory occupied by the footballers Ched Evans and Luke McCormick in the recent past. Evans, unanimously cleared of rape in 2016, had sex with a woman in a hotel room following a night out in Rhyl. McCormick, meanwhile, was sentenced to seven years and four months in prison in 2008 for killing two young brothers in a car accident when he was driving at twice the legal drink limit.
And now? Both returned to football. Evans is back playing at his original club Sheffield United, having initially had a stint with Chesterfield. McCormick was even appointed captain of his club Plymouth Argyle following spells at Truro City and Oxford United. Both have received fearful stick from opposition supporters but are viewed by the clubs who pay their wages as having been punished enough.
Therein lies both the ongoing problem and, potentially, the faintest of lifelines for Jackson and Olding. Rewarding poorly behaved players with another highly paid contract at another team sits awkwardly with many but their supporters would argue they have to earn a crust.
No high-profile club wants to be perceived as morally bankrupt but, then again, they are desperate to win every week. Past experience suggests someone, somewhere will eventually invite Jackson and Olding to play for them if the price is right. That inevitably invites two questions: when will that day dawn and who might be their employers? No one can currently supply those answers. Those advising Jackson and Olding may sense that a second-tier club, perhaps the Pro2 in France or the Greene King IPA Championship in England, might yield a softer short-term landing.